The European Union (EU) has officially included Rwanda among its list of 15 Covid19 ‘Safe Countries’ that will be permitted to enter the EU from July 1.
The commission’s final announcement was made today in Brussels after a tentative draft list of 54 countries announced on June 27 and that had been discussed by EU members before coming to this shortlist.
Countries included on Europe’s “safe list”, whose nationals will be allowed to enter Europe are: Algeria, Australia, Canada, China*, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay.
“The “safe list” will be reviewed every two weeks and adjusted depending on the latest coronavirus developments in each country,” the EU said.
The Commission also recommended that from July 1, the Member States should start permitting third country nationals to enter the EU, if the COVID-19 situation permits such a step to be taken.
The European Commission recommended the following objective criteria for the Member States, when drafting the list of countries, the citizens of which may visit the EU after July 1:
Epidemiological situation and coronavirus response in that country, the ability to apply containment measures during travel, whether or not that country has lifted travel restrictions towards the EU.
Though Rwanda’s Covid-19 cases remain relatively lower (1,001cases) compared to the rest of the continent, for non-Schengen citizens or without current multiple-entry visa, they will have to wait until at least August 1 when the VFS Schengen visa center Kigali is expected to be reopened.
The EU announcement however excluded the United States which are now considered to be unsafe for tourist travels as numbers of coronavirus cases in several states skyrocket (2,537,636 confirmed cases) past those of Brazil (1,334.134 cases)
As of 30 June 2020, there have been 10,117,687 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 502,278 deaths, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
