The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has added more destinations to its COVID warning list for American travelers just ahead of the holidays.

The COVID situation in three nations has worsened enough that the CDC has moved the locations to its highest risk category, Level 4 “very high” risk, as cases of the virus surge in these regions.

Moving to the Level 4 category this week was a European hotspot for tourists – Italy. Also being added to the CDC’s Level 4 category warning were Greenland and the East African island nation Mauritius.

As a Level 4 nation, the CDC warns that “even fully vaccinated travelers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants.”

Destinations that fall in the Level 4 “very high” risk category have more than 500 cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 residents reported in the past 28 days.

Italy, Greenland and Mauritius were previously listed as Level 3 “high” risk by the CDC.

More than 80 countries are listed as “very high” risk for travel by the CDC, including several European countries such as the recently added France, the U.K., Greece, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Ireland.

Europe has been faced with rising COVID cases, especially as the Delta and Omicron variants take hold in the region.

The CDC’s Level 3, or “high” risk, category saw one update with Malaysia as its COVID situation improved.

Level 3 is deemed by the agency as having between 100 and 500 COVID cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days.

The CDC moved three destinations to its Level 2 “moderate” risk category, including Jamaica, the Philippines and the Republic of the Congo. All three nations saw improvements in their COVID situations, moving from Level 3.

The CDC designates Level 2 as having 50 to 99 virus cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days.

The Level 1 “low” risk category had a newcomer this week with Equatorial Guinea, which had previously been at Level 2.

A Level 1 nation is reported as having fewer than 50 new COVID cases per 100,000 residents over the past 28 days.

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