The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has downgraded many of its destinations from the stringent “avoid travel” Level 4 designation to its more lenient Level 3, Level 2, and even Level 1 categories. But now, the agency is making a significant change to the Travel Health Notice System.
The CDC is easing its definition for its Level 4 category, reserving the cautionary “avoid travel” label for “special circumstances,” the agency announced on Wednesday.
“CDC uses Travel Health Notices to alert travelers and other audiences to health threats around the world and advise on how to protect themselves before, during, and after travel,” the CDC said. “With this new configuration, travelers will have a more actionable alert for when they should not travel to a certain destination (Level 4), regardless of vaccination status, until we have a clearer understanding of the COVID-19 situation at that destination.”
Beginning next week, the highest Level 4 category will be reserved for “special circumstances, such as rapidly escalating case trajectory or extremely high case counts, emergence of a new variant of concern, or healthcare infrastructure collapse.”
The Level 4 designation was previously used for destinations with more than 500 COVID cases per 100,000 people over 28 days. However, the CDC said it would continue classifying other categories, not including Level 4, by that 28-day case rate.
