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We have more and more control over the spread of the coronavirus with COVID-19 vaccines. Due to the changing situation, CDC experts issued new travel recommendations (for vaccinated and unvaccinated people). Which countries are better not to travel to where the risk of COVID-19 is high or where it is low? Where is Poland now?
- The CDC has issued new travel guidelines for over 120 countries around the world
- Countries are divided into four levels of COVID-19 risk defined on the basis of the number of cases reported in the last 28 days
- The fourth level means the highest epidemic threat, the first level – the lowest
- The new guidelines mean a change for Poland – to which level has our country qualified?
- More current information can be found on the Onet homepage.
CDC revises guidelines for travelers vaccinated and unvaccinated against COVID-19
To date, more than 2,19 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered worldwide, and that number is growing by 35,4 million every day (Bloomberg data). Thanks to the growing number of vaccinated people, we have more and more control over the spread of SARS-CoV-2.
The changing situation prompted officials from the US government agency CDC (a leading global organization to fight epidemics) to update the international travel guidelines for more than 120 countries around the world. They are aimed both at people who have received the COVID-19 vaccine and those who have not.
The CDC explains that the revised guidelines are intended to “better distinguish countries where the epidemic is serious” from those where COVID-19 is but under control. This allows a given country to be assigned to one of the four levels of epidemic threat.
Four epidemic threat levels – the highest level
A country’s epidemic threat levels are based on the number of COVID-19 cases in the last 28 days. If such data are not available, the risk level is marked as “unknown” and travelers are advised to follow the rules recommended for the highest – fourth – risk threshold. Let’s move on to the details.
Level Four: Highest COVID-19 threat level. Includes countries with more than 28 cases per 500 in the last 100 days residents. It is worth mentioning that the countries with the average number of new infections per 100 were classified as the highest warning earlier. residents.
The CDC recommendation in this case is: avoid traveling to these places, and if you must, make sure you are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 before traveling.
The group with the highest level of COVID-19 risk includes 61 countries, including: Belgium, Brazil, Croatia, the Czech Republic, India, Lithuania, Latvia, and Sweden.
The country situation is illustrated in the CDC Travel Map below.
Source: cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/map-and-travel-notices.html
The COVID-19 Real-Time PCR test can be performed at selected drive thru points of the Diagnostics network.
Level three: High level of COVID-19 threat. Includes countries where 100 to 500 cases per 100 are reported residents. The CDC recommendation in this case is: Ensure that you are fully vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 before traveling. Unvaccinated people should avoid “irrelevant” trips to these places.
64 countries, including Poland, were included in the third level. In addition to us, this group also includes Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Montenegro, Norway, Romania, Our Country, Slovakia, Spain, Tunisia, United Kingdom.
Level two: Moderate level of COVID-19 threat. Includes countries where 50-99 cases of coronavirus infection out of 100 are reported. In this case, you also need to make sure that it is fully vaccinated before traveling. As for unvaccinated people, those at particular risk of severe SARS-CoV-2 infection should avoid traveling to countries with this risk category if possible.
21 countries were classified to the second level, including: Finland, Kenya, Liechtenstein and Moldova.
Level one. The lowest level of COVID-19 threat. Includes countries that reported fewer than 28 cases in 50 days. Travelers are advised to check in advance that they are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
56 countries were classified to the first level, including Albania, Australia, China, Iceland, Israel, Malta, Morocco, New Zealand.
Reference still needs to be made to the already mentioned group of 48 countries in which the COVID-19 threat level has been defined as “unknown”. The recommendations here are as for the top – fourth level, which in short: avoid traveling to these places and, if necessary, make sure that you get fully vaccinated.
The level of unknown COVID-19 risk includes, inter alia, Afghanistan, Ireland, Monaco, San Marino, Papua New Guinea.
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CDC recommendations for travelers – what has changed for Poland?
As we have already mentioned, the CDC qualified Poland to the third level of COVID-19 threat. This means a reclassification and a reduction in the level of epidemic risk for our country from the highest (“very high”) fourth level to a “high” third level.
In the group of countries to which the CDC changed the classification, apart from Poland, there were most EU countries (except the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden), as well as, inter alia, Japan, which hosts the Olympic Games in July, and Canada, Mexico and Our Country.
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