Europe is set to impose a travel ban on Americans due to the high number of coronavirus cases in the US

• Europe is preparing to issue a new travel ban on the US due to the spread of coronavirus cases in the country.
• The European Commission has recommended that third countries with high numbers of coronavirus cases should be excluded from plans to lift travel restrictions to Europe next month.
• The US hit a record high of 40,000 daily coronavirus cases on Thursday according to data from John Hopkins University.
• This is well above the number of cases deemed acceptable by the European Union.
• A leaked draft version of the travel ban list grouped the United States with Russia and Brazil as countries set to be banned.
• EU member states will need to approve any list of banned countries.

Europe is preparing to impose a new ban on Americans from travelling to the continent, once its borders reopen, due to the high number of coronavirus cases in the US.

The EU is due to begin reopening its borders to non-European visitors at the start of July.

However, the European Commission on Friday recommended that all countries from outside the EU that continue to see a high number of coronavirus cases should be excluded from plans to lift travel restrictions into the EU.

Under their new recommendations, any non-EU country that is not "close to or below" 16 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people in a 14-day period, should not be allowed entry into the EU.

EU member states will need to approve the recommendation.

However, officials told Business Insider on the condition of anonymity that the US is highly unlikely to meet this criterion.

The US hit a record high of 40,000 coronavirus cases on Thursday according to data from John Hopkins University.

Ambassadors from EU member states are due to discuss the recommendation on Friday, with a full list of excluded countries set to emerge within the coming days.

A draft version of the list earlier this week reportedly included the United States, Russia and Brazil.

Any ban will include exemptions for certain groups such as healthcare workers and diplomats.

The decision comes as the number of coronavirus cases continues to rise in the US, in contrast to the European Union which has seen a continued decline following strict lockdowns across most of the continent.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo this week insisted that the US was working with the EU to avoid a new travel ban.

"We've denied travel to Europe and vice-versa," Pompeo said, according to the Associated Press.

"That's the posture that we all sit in now, and I think we're all taking seriously the need to figure out how to get this up.

"We'll work to get this right. We want to make sure that it's health-based, science-based."