(CNN) — Vietnam was the one vacation spot added to the US Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention’s highest-risk Stage 4 class for journey on Monday.
The “very excessive” danger class nonetheless incorporates extra locations than all the opposite ranges put collectively, with practically 140 locations now at Stage 4. In early January, there have been round 80 locations listed there.
The CDC locations a vacation spot at “Stage 4: Covid-19 Very Excessive” danger when greater than 500 instances per 100,000 residents are registered previously 28 days.
To recap, a single vacation spot was added to Stage 4 on February 28:
• Vietnam
Vietnam was beforehand listed at Stage 3, or “excessive” danger.
International case numbers have been declining since peaking in late January, however specialists warning that the pandemic shouldn’t be over.
New Zealand, which has had comparatively few Covid instances because of its strict pandemic controls, has recorded document numbers of instances previously week. The nation remained at “excessive” danger Stage 3 on Monday after transferring up from Stage 2 final week.
Vietnam was moved to the CDC’s highest-risk class for journey on Monday. Right here, a hanging panorama of terraced rice fields is pictured in northern Yen Bai province.
Nhac Nguyen/AFP through Getty Pictures
CDC: Keep away from Stage 4 locations
The CDC advises avoiding journey to Stage 4 nations. CDC thresholds for journey well being notices are based mostly totally on the variety of Covid-19 instances in a vacation spot.
Different vacationer favorites stalled on Stage 4 for a month or extra embody Mexico, Canada, France, Peru, Singapore and Spain. The UK has been there since July 2021.
Adjustments at Stage 3
The Stage 3 “excessive” danger class — which applies to locations which have had between 100 and 500 instances per 100,000 residents previously 28 days — noticed three additions on Monday. They had been:
• Comoros
• Hong Kong
• São Tomé and Príncipe
The transfer was excellent news for Comoros, an archipelago off Africa’s east coast, and São Tomé and Príncipe, an island nation off the west coast of Central Africa, which had each beforehand been at Stage 4.
Ranges 2, 1 and unknown
Locations carrying the “Stage 2: Covid-19 Reasonable” designation have seen 50 to 99 Covid-19 instances per 100,000 residents previously 28 days.
On Monday, there was a number of excellent news for Africa. 9 locations, together with Ghana and Uganda, beforehand listed at Stage 3 moved all the way down to the “average” Stage 2 class.
In whole, 10 locations moved all the way down to Stage 2 on Monday. The tenth, Montserrat, is a British Abroad Territory within the Caribbean.
Listed below are the ten locations moved to Stage 2 on February 28:
• Côte d’Ivoire
• Ghana
• Lesotho
• Liberia
• Mali
• Montserrat
• Republic of the Congo
• Rwanda
• Togo
• Uganda
To be in “Stage 1: Covid-19 Low,” a vacation spot will need to have fewer than 50 new instances per 100,000 residents over the previous 28 days.
Nigeria was the only real vacation spot moved to Stage 1 on Monday. The nation on the western coast of Africa was beforehand listed at Stage 2. There are at present solely 5 locations within the class, together with China, which not too long ago hosted the Winter Olympic Video games.
Lastly, there are locations for which the CDC has an “unknown” danger due to a lack of understanding. Often, however not at all times, these are small, distant locations or locations with ongoing warfare or unrest. There have been no additions to the class on Monday.
Tanzania, Cambodia and Macau are among the many more-visited places at present listed within the unknown class. The CDC advises in opposition to journey to those locations exactly as a result of the dangers are unknown.
A medical skilled weighs in on danger ranges
Transmission charges are “one guidepost” for vacationers’ private danger calculations, in response to CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen.
“We’re getting into a part within the pandemic the place individuals have to make their very own choices based mostly on their medical circumstances in addition to their danger tolerance in terms of contracting Covid-19,” Wen mentioned in mid-February.
“You need to interpret Stage 4 to imply it is a place with a number of neighborhood transmission of Covid-19. So in case you go, there’s a larger probability that you would contract the coronavirus,” mentioned Wen, who’s an emergency doctor and professor of well being coverage and administration on the George Washington College Milken Institute Faculty of Public Well being.
Some individuals will determine the danger is just too excessive for them, Wen mentioned. “Different individuals will say, ‘As a result of I’m vaccinated and boosted, I’m keen to tackle that danger.’
“So this actually must be a private resolution that individuals weigh understanding that proper now the CDC is classifying the totally different ranges based mostly on neighborhood transmission charges, and principally solely that,” Wen mentioned. “They don’t seem to be making an allowance for particular person circumstances.”
Prime picture: Vacationers take boat excursions by means of the Thu Bon River on April 24, 2021, in Hoi An, Vietnam. (Linh Pham/Getty Pictures).
