NEWS: The European Union prohibits travel by unvaccinated Australians on its soil.

Aus­tralia, Argenti­na and Cana­da have been removed from the “safe list” and placed on the list of “Covid dan­ger zones”.

The announce­ment comes as Aus­tralia is cur­rent­ly expe­ri­enc­ing its worst wave of the pan­dem­ic yet, with a sev­en-day aver­age of more than 100,000 new cases.

Aus­tralia has report­ed a total of 1.8 mil­lion cas­es of Covid-19 since the start of the pan­dem­ic and 2,750 deaths.

Aus­tralians who are ful­ly vac­ci­nat­ed with approved vac­cines includ­ing Pfiz­er, AstraZeneca, Novavax and Mod­er­na can still trav­el to EU coun­tries for any purpose.

EU cit­i­zens and cer­tain work­ers are exempt from the restrictions.

The 27 EU mem­ber states decid­ed on the changes this week, adding them to oth­er coun­tries includ­ing Bahrain, Chile, Colom­bia, Indone­sia, Kuwait, New Zealand, Peru, Qatar, Rwan­da, Sau­di Ara­bia, South Korea, Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates and Uruguay.

The Unit­ed States was removed from the list in August 2021 due to the esca­lat­ing Covid-19 situation.

The list of approved coun­tries is updat­ed fort­night­ly and it is up to each EU mem­ber state to decide whether they will fol­low EU guide­lines, as this is not a legal­ly bind­ing decision. .

The EU has vot­ed to make Covid cer­tifi­cates valid for just nine months, mean­ing a boost­er shot will become a require­ment for free trav­el across Europe in 2022.

When the pan­dem­ic start­ed in 2020, the major­i­ty of EU coun­tries agreed to an entry ban for non-essen­tial trav­el, which now applies to unvac­ci­nat­ed travellers.

Aus­tralia opened its own bor­ders in Decem­ber to inter­na­tion­al stu­dents, peo­ple on work visas, return­ing Aus­tralian cit­i­zens and those with exemptions.

The bor­ders had pre­vi­ous­ly been closed since March 2020 when the pan­dem­ic was declared.

Vac­ci­nat­ed Aus­tralian cit­i­zens and per­ma­nent res­i­dents have been per­mit­ted to trav­el and re-enter Aus­tralia since Decem­ber 2021.

EU coun­tries are Aus­tria, Bel­gium, Bul­gar­ia, Croa­t­ia, Repub­lic of Cyprus, Czech Repub­lic, Den­mark, Esto­nia, Fin­land, France, Ger­many, Greece, Hun­gary, Ire­land, Italy, Latvia, Lithua­nia, Lux­em­bourg, Mal­ta, the Nether­lands, Poland, Por­tu­gal. , Roma­nia, Slo­va­kia, Slove­nia, Spain and Sweden.