CDC Moves Greece, Ireland and Other Destinations to High Covid Risk Category
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) moved 16 destinations to its highest Covid-19 risk level on Monday. Greece, Ireland, US Virgin Islands and Curaçao are included among others.
The top category of “Level 4: Covid-19 Very High” means that people should avoid travel to these locations. Those who must travel should be fully vaccinated first as per the CDC. But even fully vaccinated travelers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants.
The following 16 destinations were upgraded to Level 4 this week:
- Andorra
- Curaçao
- Gibraltar
- Greece
- Guadeloupe
- Iran
- Ireland
- Isle of Man
- Kazakhstan
- Lesotho
- Libya
- Malta
- Martinique
- Saint Barthelemy
- Saint Martin
- US Virgin Islands
The CDC also recommends against international travel in general until you are fully vaccinated. “The COVID-19 situation, including the spread of new or concerning variants, differs from country to country,” the CDC says. “All travelers need to pay close attention to the conditions at their destination before traveling.” You can see all the recent CDC updates here.
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And this has….zero real world implications. Greek and Irish passport holders were previously blocked from entering the US. National of all other countries can still enter the US with a piece of paper – real or forged – suggesting they don’t have COVID. US passport holders can gleefully roll around the most infectious COVID pit in the world and return on the next flight with a forged piece of paper saying they had a negative antigen test – regardless of vaccination history. Airline employees are not trained and have little interest in authenticating documents. Once someone is on the plane there are virtually no checks or restrictions on future movement in the US. CDC has zero enforcement power which allows them to make nearly any recommendation with no actual impact on public health. Lots of words and movement but no accountability for shockingly high mortality. So sad. Good luck, America. You are going to need it.