Travel advisories list of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been recently updated, adding Puerto Rico and Switzerland among the highest-risk destinations. CDC recommends travelers to avoid places under the “Level 4: Covid-19 Very High” category. As guided by the organization, travelers should be fully vaccinated first if the reason for travel is essential. With CDC’s evolving list that ranges from Level 1 (“low”) to Level 4 (“very high”), Azerbaijan, Estonia, Guam, North Macedonia, Puerto Rico, Saint Lucia, and Switzerland, are the travel destinations that moved from the “Level 3: Covid-19 High” list to Level 4 last August 30. Based on CDC’s criteria, the places under the Level 4 category have had more than 500 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days. Meanwhile, the destinations that are included in the Level 3 category have had between 100 and 500 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days.

Travel locations such as Bermuda, Canada, Germany, and Moldova also moved up to Level 3 from Level 2. On the other hand, Bahrain, Indonesia, Namibia, Oman, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe dropped from Level 4. With this, CDC encourages unvaccinated travelers to avoid nonessential travels to the locations under the high-risk categories.