France and Iceland among new destinations added to US State Department's 'do not travel' list

The Department of State and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated their travel advisories this week, moving seven more countries to the Level-4 alert, including France, Iceland, Israel, Thailand, Aruba, French Polynesia and eSwatini.

Americans are urged to avoid travel to these places due to increased infection rates and COVID-19 variants. Other popular vacation destinations at Level 4 include Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, the UK, Costa Rica and Panama.

In March 2020, the department issued a Global Level 4 Health Advisory, which advised citizens against all international travel in response to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, as borders reopened and vaccine campaigns gathered pace, the blanket advisory was dropped and the department reverted to issuing advisories to individual countries based on risks associated with traveling there.

With more people on the move again, the department notes that travelers, particularly those who are not vaccinated, still face risks associated with COVID-19.

The advisories are regularly updated and align with the CDC's Travel Health Notices, taking into account factors like the availability of testing and the current travel restrictions for US travelers. Countries who register more than 500 new cases over the past 28 days per 100,000 population are designated to the CDC's Level-4 alert.

Under CDC guidelines, people are asked to "avoid travel" to Level 4 destinations but if they must travel, they should be fully vaccinated. The agency advises unvaccinated Americans to avoid to Level 3 destinations, where risks associated with COVID-19 remain high. Unvaccinated people who are at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19 are to avoid nonessential travel to Level 2 destinations, which are considered "COVID-19 moderate" destinations.