Two tropical islands half a world apart and popular with tourists – Jamaica in the Caribbean and Sri Lanka in South Asia – are now among the highest-risk destinations for travelers.
Travel should be avoided to locations carrying the “Level 4: Covid-19 very high” notice, according to CDC guidance. Anyone who must travel should be fully vaccinated first, the agency advises.
The four destinations added to the Level 4 list on August 16 are:
- Bahamas
- Haiti
- Kosovo
- Lebanon
- Morocco
- Sint Maarten
The CDC’s evolving list of travel notices ranges from Level 1 (“low”) to Level 4 (“very high”).
Destinations that fall into the “Covid-19 very high” Level 4 category have had more than 500 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days, according to CDC parameters. The Level 3 category applies to destinations that have had between 100 and 500 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days.
Turkey and Montenegro were previously ranked at “Level 3: Covid-19 high.”
Switzerland has had 659 laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the past four weeks, according to the country’s Federal Office of Public Health. On August 29, nearly a third of Switzerland’s intensive care units were occupied by people with coronavirus. In North Macedonia, slightly less than a quarter of residents were fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as of August 30, while 9% were partially vaccinated. And of Saint Lucia’s population of around 185,000 people, it has fully vaccinated 15.1% and partially vaccinated 4.8%.
New ‘Level 3’ destinations
Five destinations on Monday moved to the “Level 3: Covid-19 high” category: Chile, Mozambique and Uruguay (all moving down from Level 4), as well as Kosovo and North Macedonia (both moving up from Level 2).
CDC guidance for Level 3 destinations urges unvaccinated travelers to avoid nonessential travel to those locations.
In its wider travel guidance, the CDC recommends against all international travel until you are fully vaccinated.
“Fully vaccinated travelers are less likely to get and spread Covid-19. However, international travel poses additional risks, and even fully vaccinated travelers might be at increased risk for getting and possibly spreading some Covid-19 variants,” the agency said.
You can view the CDC’s risk level of any destination on its travel recommendations page.
Top photo: Old Bahama Bay West End is shown.