New International Travel Guidance Issued by the CDC

Earlier this week the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued new guidance on travel advice for more than 120 countries, including Japan, which is set to hold the Summer Olympics beginning in July.

The advice comes as vaccinations across the world continue to rise and cases of COVID-19 continue to decline. As of Wednesday, over 2 billion doses of vaccines have been administered globally.

The new guidelines and revised travel guidance seeks to better distinguish countries with more severe outbreaks of the disease with ones that have it sustained and under control.

The threat levels range from 1 to 4, with 1 indicating the lowest risk and 4 indicating the highest risk and that travel there should be avoided. The threat levels also advise on travel for unvaccinated individuals, but recommends at every level that everyone should receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

Level 4 indicates a country where there are more than 500 cases per 100,000 thousand residents and includes places such as Brazil, India and Iraq.

Level 3 indicates a country where 100 to 500 cases per 100,000 citizens are being reported and includes countries such as Mexico, Russia and Iran.

Level 2 indicates countries reporting 50-99 cases per 100,000 people and includes countries such as Finland, Cambodia and Kenya.

At level 1, the lowest threat, countries must be reporting less than 50 COVID-19 cases in the last 28 days, and includes countries such as Singapore, Israel, South Korea and Iceland.

In all, 61 countries were lowered from Level 4, in which all travel should be avoided, and 50 were lowered from Level 2 to Level 1.