EU to open borders to 'safe' countries as pandemic accelerates

[BRUSSELS] The European Union will reopen its borders to a select list of "safe countries" as the WHO warned the pandemic is still accelerating with more than 500,000 deaths worldwide.

Europe's piecemeal reopening comes as countries around the globe struggle to revive economic activity while battling new spikes of the virus, with hotspots still surging in Latin America and in the United States.

After days of negotiations, EU member are due to finalise the list of some 15 countries, including Australia, Canada, Thailand, Japan and others, whose citizens will be free to enter the bloc starting on July 1.

The US, Russia and Brazil were among those expected not to make the selection, which will be updated every two weeks based on the safety situation in each state.

With some 10.3 million known infections worldwide, the pandemic is "not even close to being over", the World Health Organization has warned.

"Although many countries have made some progress, globally the pandemic is actually speeding up," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday.

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In Europe, where infections have stabilised in many countries, the relaxation of lockdown measures is still touch-and-go as governments try to reboot economies facing historic recessions.

The UK, home to Europe's deadliest outbreak, has already seen its worst quarterly contraction in 40 years, shrinking 2.2 per cent from January-March.

The worst is yet to come, with economists predicting a double-digit slump in output during the second quarter, placing Britain in a technical recession.

Germany, which has been praised for its handling of the Covid-19 outbreak, also saw its North Rhine-Westphalia state extend a lockdown on a district hit hard by a slaughterhouse outbreak.

And in Australia, a new spike in cases in parts of Melbourne spurred new stay-at-home measures affecting some 300,000 people.

Covid-19 is still tearing across the US, particularly in southern and western states where leaders pushed for early reopenings.

The country leads the world with more than 126,000 recorded deaths and 2.5 million cases.

AFP