2 European Countries Drop From Highest Travel Risk Category Signaling Decline In COVID Cases Abroad

Two European countries budged from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) highest risk category for travel on Tuesday after seeing their COVID cases decline – a sign that the pandemic may be improving in these regions.

While the CDC downgraded the two European nations of Sweden and Romania to Level 2 “moderate” risk, it moved two destinations in Africa to its Level 3 “high” risk category at the same time.

The Level 3 “high” category is now the highest travel category listed by the CDC as Level 4 has been reserved for special circumstances such as extremely high cases of COVID in a location, a new emerging variant of the virus, or a complete collapse of a country’s healthcare system. Currently, there are no destinations listed at Level 4.

The two nations in Africa that were moved to Level 3 include Botswana and Cape Verde.

Botswana was previously listed in the Level 1 “low” risk category, seeing its COVID cases worsen significantly, while Cape Verde was upgraded from Level 2 “moderate” risk, also seeing an increase in the number of cases of the virus.

A Level 3 nation has more than 100 cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 residents reported in the past 28 days.

Currently, there are over 110 locations listed in the CDC’s Level 3 category out of the approximately 235 nations monitored by the agency, including most of Europe, Canada, Mexico, much of the Caribbean, Brazil, South Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand.

The CDC has recommended being up to date with COVID vaccines before traveling to a Level 3 destination but warns 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."

On Tuesday, the CDC also made updates to several nations within its Level 2 “moderate” risk category. This included moving Bolivia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, Romania, and Sweden to the category.

While Romania and Sweden were moved down from Level 3 due to an improving COVID situation, Bolivia, Kenya, and Morocco saw worsening COVID cases, moving up from Level 1 “low” risk. Ethiopia was remiss from last week’s listing.

A Level 2 location has between 50 to 100 COVID cases per 100,000 residents reported in the past 28 days.

The CDC’s Level 1 “low” travel category also saw changes this week with six locations added – El Salvador, Fiji, Guinea, Moldova, Sint Eustatius, and Tanzania.

Sint Eustatius was moved down from Level 3, while El Salvador, Fiji, and Moldova saw their COVID situation worsen, moving up from Level 2. Guinea and Tanzania were previously listed in the CDC’s “unknown” category, where information on a country's COVID situation is unavailable due to unreliable information coming out of the region.

Level 1 destinations have 49 or fewer cases of the virus per 100,000 residents reported over the past 28 days, the CDC said.

Four locations were also added to the CDC’s “unknown” risk category this week, including Bhutan, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Ghana.