American Travelers Warned To Avoid These 3 European Destinations As Omicron Infections Surge Globally

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a new warning for American travelers, adding three new destinations to its highest COVID risk level on Tuesday.

The three European locations included Sweden, Malta and Moldova, which all saw their COVID situations worsen in the last week, moving them to the CDC’s Level 4 “very high” risk category.

The CDC deems a destination as Level 4 or “very high” risk when it has more than 500 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days.

Sweden and Malta were listed on the CDC’s Level 3 “high” risk category last week. Moldova was previously in the agency’s “unknown” category, where reliable data was unavailable about the nation’s COVID situation until now.

Sweden joins other Scandinavian countries such as Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway, which are also listed as Level 4 “very high” risk countries based on their COVID case count.

Other destinations deemed Level 4 by the CDC include France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the U.K., South Africa, Russia, Singapore, Austria and Turkey.

Nearly 90 destinations have been designated Level 4 by the CDC, which warns American travelers against visiting even if fully vaccinated, saying they “may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants.”

The CDC updated its advisory on Tuesday for Argentina and Brunei to Level 3 or “high” risk. Argentina moved from Level 2 “moderate” risk as the number of COVID infections in the country increased, while Brunei saw its virus numbers decrease from a Level 4 risk. The CDC marks destinations as Level 3 when they have between 100 and 500 COVID cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days.

Three changes came to the CDC’s Level 2 “moderate” risk category with Cuba, Gabon and Guatemala, where COVID cases are between 50 and 99 per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days. All three locations showed an improvement in their virus situations as they were previously listed as Level 3 by the CDC.

The CDC’s Level 1 or “low” risk category saw one change on Tuesday, with São Tomé and Príncipe being added to the list. Level 1 destinations have had fewer than 50 virus cases per 100,000 residents over the past 28 days.

The CDC also made additions to its “unknown” travel category, where there is not enough reliable information about a destination’s COVID situation to make a determination on the risk level. French Polynesia, New Caledonia and Suriname were added to this category.