CDC adds no new destinations to the highest risk category

Thursday, March 31, 2022

The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention has not added any new destinations on Monday to its highest-risk category for travel. This comes after months and months of discouraging additions to its Level 4 category, in which destinations are considered “very high” risk for Covid-19.

When the Delta variant of the coronavirus was of paramount concern, the CDC added a whopping 16 nations to Level 4 in one week. Some of those August 2, 2021, additions included travel favorites Greece and Ireland. 7 more places were added to Level 4, including France and Thailand.

The CDC places a destination at Level 4 risk when more than 500 cases per 100,000 residents are registered in the past 28 days. The additions to Level 4 slowed down in the fall, but they never completely let up.

Then the easily contracted Omicron variant quickly swept the world, putting a fast halt to the downward trend. On January 18, a whopping 22 destinations were added to Level 4. Since that peak, the number of destinations in Level 4 has been declining again and many places are relaxing or dropping their international travel restrictions.

Tourist favorites stalled on Level 4 include Aruba, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, France, Greece, Italy, Peru and Spain. The United Kingdom has been there since July 2021.

The CDC does not include the United States in its list of advisories, but it was color-coded at Level 4 on March 28 on the agency’s map of travel risk levels.

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