While news of countries finally opening back up with fewer restrictions may be making headlines, the Omicron wave of COVID-19 is still making travel difficult. As Reuters notes, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and State Department on Monday advised against travel to an additional 15 countries and territories, including several popular tourist destinations.
The new additions to the CDC’s COVID-19 Travel Recommendations list put the number of Level 4 warning countries (“Avoid travel to these destinations”) to about 115. New areas added include Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Fiji, Jamaica, Guadalupe, Kuwait, Mongolia, Niger, Peru, Romania, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates (UAE). The agency also raised 10 countries to a Level 3 threat. The CDC uses case data reported to the World Health Organization to determine a destination’s COVID-19 threat level, with over 500 new cases reported per 100,000 people in the previous 28 days leading to a Level 4 designation (the United States is currently at 12 times this figure).
In many parts of the world, perhaps excluding the United Kingdom and parts of Africa, the Omicron wave is getting worse. As Forbes notes, there were 22 countries added to the Level 4 list last week. From January 10-16, there were over 18 million new cases of COVID-19 reported, a 20% increase from the week before.
This is all bleak news, but as we recently noted, now is actually a good time to book travel for summer, as some experts predict the Omicron wave will peak worldwide soon and we could see a great reopening, with fewer restrictions, starting in the summer.
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