The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention added eight destinations to its highest-risk category for travel on Monday, including the world's No. 2 most-visited nation before the pandemic started.

The CDC also added seven more places -- spanning the Caribbean, Africa and the Middle East as well as Europe -- to its "Level 4: Covid-19 Very High" category. They are:

The CDC places a destination at Level 4 when more than 500 cases per 100,000 residents are registered in the past 28 days.

Three tiny destinations in Europe -- Gibraltar, Monaco and San Marino -- provide a cautionary example about traveling to places without reliable statistics. They all shot up to Level 4 on Monday from the CDC's "unknown" risk category. Destinations are put there when there is a lack of reliable information coming from them to the CDC.

The landlocked northern African nation of Chad had previously been at Level 1, the "low risk" category.

Spain is hardly alone. Much of Europe is currently ranked at the highest travel risk. Other big travel names already at the CDC's Level 4 include:

• France

• Germany

• Greece

• Italy

• United Kingdom



And Europe isn't the only continent with popular tourist destinations on Level 4. Among the other places also considered at "very high" risk for travel are:

In all, almost 90 countries were rated Level 4 as of December 20.

The Level 3 category -- which applies to destinations that have had between 100 and 500 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days -- just saw two new additions on Monday:

The move was good for the Caribbean island-nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, which had been at Level 4. However, it was bad news for South America's Peru, which had been at Level 2 since early October.

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. It only saw one addition on Monday, that of St. Pierre and Miquelon. The tiny French territory off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, previously had been at Level 1.

In the category of "Level 1: Covid-19 Low" destinations, fewer than 50 new cases per 100,000 residents have been logged over the past 28 days. It saw no new additions on Monday.

Finally, there are destinations, as cited above, for which the CDC has an "unknown" risk because of a lack of information. On Monday, it added four places to this category:

The CDC cautions even fully vaccinated travelers about venturing to destinations with no reliable statistics about the current Covid-19 situation.

"Fully vaccinated travelers are less likely to get and spread Covid-19. However, international travel poses additional risks, and even fully vaccinated travelers might be at increased risk for getting and possibly spreading some Covid-19 variants," the agency said.

Source: CNN

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