European Union governments agreed on Wednesday to add Canada and 10 other countries to their list of states from which they will allow non-essential travel, EU diplomats said, Reuters reports.
Ambassadors from the EU's 27 states approved the additions at a meeting on Wednesday, with the change to take effect in the coming days.
Ex-EU member Britain, where the highly infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus has caused a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases, is not on the list.
The 11 countries joining it are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei, Canada, Jordan, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
EU countries are recommended to gradually to lift travel restrictions for the current 14 countries on the list - Albania, Australia, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Rwanda, Serbia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States.
Chinese administrative regions Hong Kong and Macau are also included.
Individual EU countries can still opt to demand a negative COVID-19 test or a period of quarantine.
The decision, however, may change if the epidemic situation in the country worsens.
Georgia, for example, was one of the first "green" countries in July last year, but was left out of the list months after the second wave of the pandemic. As of next week, EU member states are expected to announce when and how the country will open its borders.
In case of any decision, the citizens of Armenia are obliged to comply with the general anti-epidemic requirements, to submit a negative answer to the coronavirus test or to confirm that they have been vaccinated against the coronavirus registered in the EU.
