CDC Adds 22 Countries to travel Warning List

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention let their conditional sail order expire over the weekend, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they think it’s safe to travel. In fact, going off their most recent announcement, you’d think it wasn’t safe to travel at all. The embattled federal agency added 22 countries to its level four travel advisory list on Tuesday due to rising levels of COVID-19, specifically the Omicron variant that’s causing travel disruption all around the world. 

The CDC now has over 100 countries on their level 4 list and urges Americans to avoid travel at all costs, even for the fully vaccinated. 

The new countries on the list include popular Caribbean cruise destinations like St. Lucia, the British Virgin Islands, Turks and Caicos, Bermuda and the Bahamas. Other countries of note to find themselves on the list include Israel, Australia, Egypt, and Argentina. 

Prior to the update, the level four list was already well-stocked with places to avoid, according to the CDC. Most of Europe found themselves on the list already along with Canada, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Norway, Sweden, Finland, just to name a few. 

Cruising Vs. Travel 

If it sounds like the CDC is sending mixed messages about travel, you aren’t wrong. Earlier in January, Director of the CDC Dr. Rochelle Walensky spoke in a Senate hearing and praised the cruise industry for their compliance, but this week urges people to avoid Australia, a place still closed to international travel. 

“I think the Conditional Sail Order and the fact the industry has stepped up and is now interested in exceeding the compliance with the Sail Order without the order necessarily being in place is a real testimonial to how well that has worked,” she said to the group of Senators. 

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Confidence is high that cruise lines can sail without CDC health and safety oversight because they’ve already been doing it for well over a year. Several cruise lines resumed operation in late 2020 and early 2021 outside of the United States to great success, and that was well before COVID-19 vaccines were available to the public. 

 

What do you think about the CDC’s new travel warning list? Let us know in the comments!