US Government Lifts Major COVID Warning for the First Time in 4 Months

A warning that cautioned U.S. citizens against any international travel due to COVID-19 was lifted on Thursday.

The State Department announced the lifting of the Global Level 4 Health Advisory on its website, noting that the action was taken in consultation with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The advisory had been issued on March 19. 

“With health and safety conditions improving in some countries and potentially deteriorating in others, the Department is returning to our previous system of country-specific levels of travel advice (with Levels from 1-4 depending on country-specific conditions), in order to give travelers detailed and actionable information to make informed travel decisions,” the statement said.

Going back to the country-by-country approach “will also provide U.S. citizens more detailed information about the current status in each country,” the State Department’s announcement added. “We continue to recommend U.S. citizens exercise caution when traveling abroad due to the unpredictable nature of the pandemic.” 

The State Department emphasized that it has worked with the CDC.

“The Department of State has worked closely with the CDC since the start of the pandemic to align our public messages and travel advice and to keep Americans safe,” the statement read.

“The Department’s COVID-19 Travel Advisories are informed by CDC’s expert judgment of the health situation as well as other factors related to travel, infrastructure, healthcare resources, and potential closures and restrictions in the country which are important for U.S. citizens to consider.”

The department urged anyone who might travel abroad to look on Travel.State.gov for country-by-country updates, or review all travel advisories. The State Department issues advisories that can be related to terrorism and other factors that could impact safety.

The CDC has a separate list of advisories devoted to COVID-19. Most nations are considered high risk.

The CDC includes as lowest-risk nations places such as Greenland, Laos, Taiwan, the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands. The next level of safety, where the CDC says the risk is low, includes New Zealand and Thailand.

Travelers may also need to check to see if they will be allowed into the country they hoped to visit. The European Union, for instance, currently does not allow travelers from the U.S., according to USA Today.

Any American traveling to Britain needs to plan on spending the first 14 days in quarantine, CNN reported.

Globally, the World Health Organization says the virus continues to spike, but in different places, according to the BBC.

The WHO says Latin America is the current region of concern.

Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Colombia and Argentina top the list of Latin American nations with the most confirmed cases.

Elsewhere, South Africa has topped 500,000 reported cases, while India been recording more than 50,000 new infections daily for the past week.