From News Nation:
“CDC lifts 90 countries’ ‘Do
not Travel’ COVID designations”
The U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Monday it had dropped its “Do Not Travel”
COVID-19 recommendations for about 90 international destinations. Last week,
the CDC said it was revising its travel recommendations and would reserve its
Level 4 travel health notices “for special circumstances, such as rapidly
escalating case trajectory or extremely high case counts.”
The countries and other regions
dropped to “Level 3: High,” which still discourages travel by unvaccinated
Americans, include the United Kingdom, France, Israel, Turkey, Australia,
Greece, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain and Russia. Also being
lowered are Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central African Republic,
Chile, Czech Republic, Jordan, Lebanon, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Poland,
Somalia, Uruguay and Vietnam.
The CDC currently lists no
countries at “Level 4” that it has renamed “Special Circumstances/Do Not
Travel.” The U.S. State Department said last week it was also sharply cutting
back on “Do Not Travel” advisories for international destinations.
Out of about 215 countries and
territories that it rates, the department currently lists nearly 120 at “Level
Four: Do Not Travel”, including much of Europe, Japan, Israel and Russia. The
department last week said its update due later on Monday “will leave
approximately 10% of all travel advisories at Level 4 ” including all risk
factors, not just COVID. “We believe the updated framework will help U.S.
citizens make better-informed decisions about the safety of international travel,”
it said in a statement. Airlines and other travel groups have been pressing the
Biden administration to lift the pre-departure COVID negative test requirements
for international travelers, as many other countries have done. They also
argued the Do Not Travel advisories were unnecessary and discouraged travel. Administration
officials say the issue has been under review but health officials have
announced no changes.
^ This seems like a good and
needed change. ^
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.