The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) added just one new destination, the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius, to its highest-risk category for travel on Monday.
The weekly travel risk-level update brought good news for islands clustered in and around the Caribbean Sea with nine destinations—including the Bahamas, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic—dropping down one rung from Level 4.
The CDC places a destination at “Level 4: COVID-19 Very High” risk when more than 500 cases per 100,000 residents are registered in the past 28 days.
Mauritius, located off the eastern coast of Africa, recently logged a 180 percent increase in weekly cases, according to World Health Organization (WHO) figures. Located about 700 miles east of Madagascar, Mauritius had previously been on Level 3.
Last week, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Thailand were added to Level 4.
To recap, just one destination was added to Level 4 on March 14:
• Mauritius
After declines in global cases since the end of January, WHO logged an uptick in cases worldwide for the week of March 7.
CDC: Avoid Level 4 Destinations
There are about 125 destinations currently at Level 4. While the number of places in the “very high” risk category has dipped since topping around 140 in February, there are still more places in the Level 4 category than in all the other categories combined.
The CDC advises avoiding travel to Level 4 countries. CDC thresholds for travel health notices are based primarily on the number of Covid-19 cases in a destination.
The CDC does not include the United States in its list of advisories, but it was color-coded at Level 4 on March 14 on the agency’s map of travel risk levels.
Tourist favorites stalled on Level 4 include Aruba, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, France, Greece, Peru, and Spain. The United Kingdom has been there since July 2021.
You can view the CDC’s risk levels for any global destination on its travel recommendations page.
In its broader travel guidance, the CDC has recommended avoiding all international travel until you are fully vaccinated.
Changes at Level 3
The Level 3 “high” risk category—which applies to destinations that have had between 100 and 500 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days—saw nine additions on Monday—all islands clustered in the Caribbean and Atlantic. They were:
• Cuba
• Bahamas
• British Virgin Islands
• Dominican Republic
• Jamaica
• Saint Kitts and Nevis
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
• Sint Maarten
• Turks and Caicos Islands
They were all previously listed at Level 4.
Levels 2, 1, and Unknown
Destinations carrying the “Level 2: COVID-19 Moderate” designation have seen 50 to 99 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days. The four new entries to Level 2 on March 14 are:
• Cruise ship travel
• Gabon
• Kyrgyzstan
• Zambia
They were all previously listed at Level 3. Cruise travel previously dropped from Level 4 to Level 3 in mid-February and is now considered “moderate” risk at Level 2.
To be in “Level 1: COVID-19 Low,” a destination must have fewer than 50 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past 28 days. Eleven places moved to Level 1 on Monday:
• Angola
• Burkina Faso
• Comoros
• Djibouti
• Equatorial Guinea
• Liberia
• Mali
• Mauritania
• Saba
• São Tomé and Príncipe
• Senegal
Finally, there are destinations for which the CDC has an “unknown” risk because of a lack of information. Usually, but not always, these are small, remote places or places with ongoing warfare or unrest. The CDC made no new additions to the category on Monday.
Tanzania, Cambodia, and Macau are among the more-visited locations currently listed in the unknown category. The CDC advises against travel to these places precisely because the risks are unknown.
The CNN Wire contributed to this report.