Avoid these countries with ‘very high’ COVID risk: CDC

A new yr usually means new adventures for pandemic-weary travelers. But the Facilities for Illness Manage and Prevention is advising vacationers to rethink visits to some international locations as the omicron coronavirus variant continues to spread.

The public health agency on Tuesday, Jan. 18, additional just about two dozen locations to its checklist of nations around the world with “very high” chance for COVID-19, urging travelers to stay away from them.

Various top family vacation places, which include 7 islands in the Caribbean, were upgraded to the “Level 4” possibility classification.

The alerts are part of the CDC’s weekly Journey Wellbeing See system, which warns vacationers about wellness and safety threats around the earth. Countries are ranked from “Level 1” possibility to “Level 4” possibility dependent on documented COVID-19 information, in accordance to the agency’s site.

The CDC up to date its checklist contain 22 new destinations, all of which were being upgraded from a “Level 3” risk to “Level 4.” They are:

• Albania
• Argentina
• Australia
• The Bahamas
• Bahrain
• Bermuda
• Bolivia
• British Virgin Islands
• Cape Verde
• Egypt
• Grenada
• Guyana
• Israel
• Panama
• Qatar
• St. Kitts and Nevis
• St. Lucia

• São Tomé and Príncipe

• St. Maarten

• Suriname

• Turks and Caicos

• Uruguay

For the full list of high-threat nations around the world, discover the CDC vacation map listed here.

To identify a country’s COVID-19 threat, the CDC takes advantage of “data reported by the Entire world Health and fitness Business and other official sources,” the agency’s web page states.

For instance, places with a “Level 4: quite high” coronavirus threat have reported a lot more than 500 new instances in the very last 28 times for every 100,000 people, according to the CDC. Folks are urged to stay away from touring to nations around the world that fall into this class.

Nations marked as “Level 1: low” possibility claimed fewer than 50 situations in the same time span for every 100,000 individuals.

“If a location does not supply knowledge, their THN level is designated as ‘unknown’ and vacationers are encouraged to comply with THN Amount 4 recommendations,” CDC officials explained.

This story was originally released January 19, 2022 10:56 AM.