The CDC’s move reflects a continued shift toward normalcy.
In another sign that the world is getting over the Covid-19 pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) no longer maintains a country-by-country list of health advisories. travel related to Covid.
From now on, the CDC will only issue a travel health advisory for a country if there is a variant of Covid-19 or another situation that affects the risk of travel to that country. This change comes because “fewer countries are testing or reporting cases of Covid-19,” which has limited the agency’s ability to accurately assess the level of risk to travelers, the agency said in a statement.
Despite the worldwide decline in testing and reporting, “CDC is working with other countries to try to compare wastewater surveillance and other techniques so that even without the reliable testing we’ve come to rely on, we have ways another as we look for an increase. around the world,” physician and former Obama health adviser Dr. Kavita Patel told MSNBC’s Jonathan Lemire on Tuesday.
Since the spring of this year, the CDC has been reducing its travel warnings.
In April, the agency made a major change to its world map, moving from a four-level system for Covid-19 travel health advisories and essentially eliminating Level-4 risk, which came with a “Do Not Travel” notice.
This has left countries ranked on a scale sliding from “high risk” at Level 3 to “moderate risk” at Level 2 to “low risk” at Level 1. As of last week, the vast majority of countries in the world were still at Level 3.
In July, the CDC released its Covid-19 program for cruise ships, saying that “cruise ships have access to guidance and tools to manage their Covid-19 mitigation programs .”
Country-specific warnings have been replaced on the CDC website with more general recommendations about international travel during the pandemic. “Update your Covid-19 vaccines before you travel,” says the first point. “Consider getting tested before travel,” says the next.
Being “up to date” with Covid-19 vaccines means you have completed a primary series of Covid-19 vaccines and received any booster for which you are eligible, including the updated bivalent booster.
As of today, just over two-thirds (67.9%) of the total US population has been fully vaccinated, but less than half of those eligible for the booster have received the first booster dose, according to data from the CDC.
The United States is currently reporting 47 million active cases of Covid-19 on a seven-day rolling average, a decrease of 13% from the previous week.
The numbers are “all trending in the right direction, but still quite high,” Dr. Patel said.
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