3 Tropical Island Destinations Upgraded To ‘High’ Risk For Travelers As COVID Cases Increase

Three popular tourist destinations joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Level 3 “high” risk travel category on Tuesday amid rising COVID cases.

Anguilla, Jamaica, and the Turks and Caicos Islands saw their COVID situations worsen in recent days, prompting the CDC to move the three islands to its highest tier warning level for American travelers.

The Level 3 category is now the agency’s highest warning level for travelers. Back in April, it announced it was reserving its Level 4 risk category for special circumstances, such as extreme COVID cases or the emergence of a new variant. There are no locations currently listed in the Level 4 category.

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

Anguilla, Jamaica, and the Turks and Caicos Islands were listed in the Level 2 “moderate” risk category last week.

Currently, there are about 110 nations listed in the CDC’s Level 3 category out of the approximately 235 locations the agency is monitoring, including most of the Caribbean, Canada, most of Europe, Brazil, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand, and Costa Rica.

The CDC recommends all travelers to a Level 3 nation to be up-to-date on their COVID vaccines 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.”

Also seeing updates on Tuesday were the nations of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Guyana, Moldova, Poland, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Tunisia, which moved into the Level 2 “moderate” risk category.

It was good news for most of the destinations as they saw improvements in their COVID situations. However, Dominican Republic, Guyana, and Saint Kitts and Nevis all saw their COVID situation worsen, moving up from Level 1 “low” risk.

A Level 2 nation has between 50 and 100 COVID cases per 100,000 residents reported in the past 28 days. Currently, there are about 20 locations in the Level 2 category.

Two changes were made to the CDC’s Level 1 “low” risk category with the additions of Kuwait and Mauritania. These nations have had 49 or fewer COVID cases per 100,000 residents over the past 28 days.

About 50 destinations are currently listed in the Level 1 category, including Egypt, Sri Lanka, Bolivia, Kosovo, and Indonesia.

No new additions were made to the CDC’s “unknown” risk category.