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More destinations have been upgraded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to its “high” risk category for travel as cases of COVID-19 increase.
The agency moved the nations of Bolivia, Lebanon, Peru, and Tunisia to the level 3 “high” risk category on Monday as their COVID situations worsened in recent days. The CDC deems a location as Level 3 when it has more than 100 cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 residents reported in the past 28 days.
All four countries were listed as Level 2 “moderate” risks for COVID cases last week.
Currently, Level 3 is the highest risk category listed by the CDC as it has now reserved its Level 4 “very high” list for extreme circumstances such as an extremely high number of cases of the virus, the emergence of a new variant, or a complete healthcare collapse.
To date, there are no destinations listed in the Level 4 category, while the Level 3 category has about 115 places listed in it out of the approximately 235 nations being monitored by the CDC.
Other nations in the Level 3 “high” risk category include much of Europe and the Caribbean, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, Malaysia, and South Korea.
The CDC warns that before traveling to a Level 3 destination, American travelers should be up to date with all their COVID vaccines, but added that “Even if you are up to date with your COVID-19 vaccines, you may still be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19.”
Also seeing changes on Monday was one location that was moved onto the Level 2 “moderate” risk category by the CDC – Fiji. Fiji was previously listed in the Level 1 “low” risk category but has recently seen its COVID cases rise.
A Level 2 nation has between 50 and 100 COVID cases reported per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days.
There are currently 16 places in the Level 2 category, including Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Colombia, Poland, and Ethiopia.
The CDC also made updates to its Leve 1 “low” risk category, adding Romania to the list. Romania was listed in the Level 2 category last week and has since seen its COVID situation improve.
A Level 1 destination has 49 or fewer COVID cases per 100,000 residents reported in the past 28 days.
The Level 1 “low” risk travel category has more than 40 locations currently, including nations such as El Salvador, Moldova, Tanzania, Cuba, Egypt, China, India, and Indonesia.
Lastly, four destinations — Armenia, Laos, Liberia, and Mongolia — were added to the CDC’s “unknown” risk category where reliable information about COVID cases is unavailable. The CDC warns against traveling to an “unknown” category country.
Previously, Armenia and Liberia were listed as Level 1 risk, while Laos and Mongolia were in the Level 3 category. 
Photo: AFP / Cris BOURONCLE
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