More than 100 countries are now on U.S. federal health officials’ list of destinations to avoid due to a high risk of COVID-19, including Australia, Israel, the Bahamas and the British Virgin Islands.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention moved 22 countries to its “level 4” travel health notice tier on Tuesday, signaling that travelers should “avoid travel to these destinations” regardless of vaccination status.
“If you must travel to these destinations, make sure you are fully vaccinated before travel,” the CDC says on its website.
The countries now considered to have a “very high” risk of COVID-19 include:
- Albania
- Argentina
- Australia
- The Bahamas
- Bahrain
- Bermuda
- Bolivia
- British Virgin Islands
- Cape Verde
- Egypt
- Grenada
- Guyana
- Israel
- Panama
- Qatar
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Lucia
- São Tomé and Príncipe
- Sint Maarten
- Suriname
- Turks and Caicos Islands
- Uruguay
They join other popular destinations on the level 4 tier, including Canada, France and the United Kingdom.
The CDC looks at incidence rates and new case trajectories to determine each country’s COVID-19 risk. Countries are bumped to the level 4 tier when they report more than 500 new cases per 100,000 people over the past 28 days.
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Other Tuesday changes to the CDC’s travel guidance include:
- Costa Rica, Cuba, Fiji, Gabon, Jamaica, Kuwait, Madagascar, Mauritania, Nigeria, Saint Pierre and Miquelon and Togo moved from level 2 to level 3.
- Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Morocco, Paraguay, the Philippines, Saba, Saint Barthélemy, Sint Eustatius and Uganda moved from level 1 to level 3.
- Malawi and Mozambique moved from level 4 to level 3.
- Djibouti, India and Kosovo moved from level 1 to level 2.
- Brunei moved from level 3 to level unknown.
Follow USA TODAY reporter Bailey Schulz on Twitter: @bailey_schulz.
