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CDC adds former COVID-19 success stories to its highest-risk category for travel

Tuesday, March 8, 2022

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The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention moved three high-profile destinations to its highest-risk Level 4 category for travel on Monday.




Hong Kong and New Zealand have spent much of the pandemic in near isolation with relatively few infections and had been lauded as COVID-19 success stories.


However, the Omicron variant has caused massive spikes in cases in both places.


Hong Kong is late in playing out a now-familiar scene: Morgues near capacity, hospitals overwhelmed and supermarkets stripped bare by shoppers.


Hong Kong has tightly restricted travel since the start of the pandemic and recently suspended many incoming international flights.


The spike comes in New Zealand just as it is beginning to shift toward plans to open up its borders to select international vacationers later this year.


It has maintained some of the strictest isolation measures in the world during the pandemic.


Joining those two is Thailand, one of the crown jewels of world travel and the No. 1 Asian earner of tourism revenue in 2019.

Thailand restarted its “Test & Go” program on February 1, which allows vaccinated international travellers from all countries to enter without lengthy quarantines.



The CDC places a destination at “Level 4: COVID-19 Very High” risk when more than 500 cases per 100,000 residents are registered in the past 28 days.



To recap, the destinations added to Level 4 on March 7 are:

• Hong Kong

• New Zealand

• Thailand

All three destinations were previously listed at Level 3, considered “high” risk.


Global case numbers have been declining since peaking in late January, but experts caution that the pandemic is not over.


CDC: Avoid Level 4 destinations

There are about 135 destinations currently at Level 4.

While the number of places in the “very high” risk category has dipped slightly since topping around 140 in February, there are still more places in the Level 4 category than in all the other categories combined.


The CDC advises avoiding travel to Level 4 countries. CDC thresholds for travel health notices are based primarily on the number of Covid-19 cases in a destination.


The CDC does not include the United States in its list of advisories, but it was coluor-coded at Level 4 on March 7 on the agency’s map of travel risk levels.

Last week, Vietnam was the only destination added to Level 4.

Other tourist favorites stalled on Level 4 include Canada, Egypt, France, Greece, Peru and Singapore. The United Kingdom has been there since July 2021.





Changes at Level 3

Tourists looking for some news that’s trending in a good direction will find it on this level.


The Level 3 “high” risk category which applies to destinations that have had between 100 and 500 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days saw six additions from various spots around the globe on Monday.


They were:


• Anguilla

• Cape Verde

• Fiji

• Mexico

• Philippines

• United Arab Emirates



All six had previously been at Level 4. Mexico has stayed open to tourists throughout the pandemic. It doesn’t have any vaccination or testing requirements to enter.




Levels 2, 1 and unknown


On Monday, there was good news for people who are dreaming of a trip to Africa.


Destinations carrying the “Level 2: COVID-19 Moderate” designation have seen 50 to 99 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days.


Nine destinations representing all sections of the continent moved to Level 2 on March 7:



• Angola

• Djibouti

• Equatorial Guinea

• Ethiopia

• The Gambia

• Mauritania

• Mozambique

• Namibia


• Senegal






Last week, all of these destinations were at Level 3.


Africa continued to be a bright spot with the Level 1 category as well, including the popular safari and cultural favorite Kenya.


To be in “Level 1: COVID-19 Low,” a destination must have fewer than 50 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past 28 days. Eight places moved to Level 1 on Monday:


• Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)

• Kenya

• Lesotho

• Niger

• Rwanda

• Republic of Congo

• Togo

• Uganda




The only destinations now listed at Level 1 outside of Africa are China and Taiwan.

Finally, there are destinations for which the CDC has an “unknown” risk because of a lack of information.


Usually, but not always, these are small, remote places or places with ongoing warfare or unrest. The CDC made no new additions to the category on Monday.


Tanzania, Cambodia and Macau are among the more-visited locations currently listed in the unknown category. The CDC advises against travel to these places precisely because the risks are unknown.





A medical expert weighs in on risk levels


Wen said in mid-February that they are entering a phase in the pandemic where people need to make their own decisions based on their medical circumstances as well as their risk tolerance when it comes to contracting COVID-19.



So this really needs to be a personal decision that people weigh understanding that right now the CDC is classifying the different levels based on community transmission rates, and basically only that, Wen said.








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