U.S. To Boost “Do Not Travel” Advisories To 80% Of The World

If you are planning on traveling in the near future, you may want to check what the U.S. State Department on where it is advised that you not go there due to an "unprecedented risk to travelers", because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"This update will result in a significant increase in the number of countries at Level 4: Do Not Travel, to approximately 80% of countries worldwide,” the department said in a statement.

34 out of 200 countries have already been listed as "Level 4: Do Not Travel",. These countries include places like Chad, Kenya, Brazil, Argentina, Russia, Tanzania and Kosovo and getting that number of places not to go to 200 would mean they are adding another 130 countries.

Most of Europe has already been off limits to most Americans because of COVID restrictions. Non U.S. citizens that have traveled recently to most of Europe, China, Brazil, Iran and South Africa are currently barred from coming into the U.S.

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It's not like these countries have been reassessed by the State Department but just “reflects an adjustment in the State Department’s Travel Advisory system to rely more on (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s) existing epidemiological assessments.”

Well, I guess that, since the CDC says we can travel at "Low Risk", if fully vaccinated, within the U.S. that's what we should do, right?  Wrong, according to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, even travel within the U.S. is discouraged because of the pandemic hotspots which seem to change every day.

“We know that right now we have a surging number of cases. I would advocate against general travel overall,” Walensky said. “We are not recommending travel at this time, especially for unvaccinated individuals.”

I can only hope that we can get everyone on the same page and follow CDC guidelines and all get vaccinated. That is the only road to opening things back up and living our lives again.

(PhamaLive.com)