US State Department Lifts Global Level 4 Health Advisory Avoiding International Travel Amid COVID-19

Global Level 4 Health Advisory, that restricted citizens from traveling abroad amid the coronavirus pandemic, has been lifted, the U.S Department of State announced Thursday, Aug.6.

"With health and safety conditions improving in some countries and potentially deteriorating in others, the Department is returning to our previous system of country-specific levels of travel advice (with Levels from 1-4 depending on country-specific conditions), in order to give travelers detailed and actionable information to make informed travel decisions," a statement from the state department read.

"This will also provide U.S. citizens with more detailed information about the current status in each country. We continue to recommend U.S. citizens exercise caution when traveling abroad due to the unpredictable nature of the pandemic."

The Global Advisory was initially put in place on March 19 this year.

The department requests citizens to review the recent updates to the Travel Advisories if they plan on traveling abroad.

Even though the global travel ban is lifted, citizens will continue to face travel restrictions when it comes to entry into other countries. As a precaution to the rising numbers of positive COVID-19 cases, most of the countries worldwide are currently not welcoming foreign travelers or have strict restrictions on them.

Americans are restricted from entering countries in the European Union because of the alarming number of infected people in the U.S. Whereas, citizens traveling to the U.K are required to quarantine for 14 days from the day of entry.

"We are closely monitoring health and safety conditions across the globe, working in partnership with the CDC and other agencies. As always, we will regularly update our destination-specific advice to U.S. travelers as conditions evolve," the state department said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends against non-essential travel to more than 200 destinations including crossing the country’s north and south borders into Canada and Mexico.

"The Department of State has worked closely with the CDC since the start of the pandemic to align our public messages and travel advice and to keep Americans safe," it said.

"The Department's COVID-19 Travel Advisories are informed by CDC's expert judgment of the health situation as well as other factors related to travel, infrastructure, healthcare resources, and potential closures and restrictions in the country which are important for U.S. citizens to consider."

There are currently 5,032,179 positive cases in the U.S with 162,804 deaths reported so far.