Health and Healthcare

COVID-19: Countries the CDC Doesn't Want You to Visit

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: August 12, 2021 10:30 am

The emergence of the Delta variant of COVID-19 has thrown American rules for contact between people into chaos. Some states have “no mask mandates,” though school systems have mandated masks. People, even those who are vaccinated, have started to wear masks indoors. States with low vaccination rates are posting phenomenal increases in numbers of cases, hospitalizations and deaths from the disease. In fact, the increase in daily cases nationwide is the highest since the deadly third wave at the start of the year.

Despite cautions, Americans have started to travel again. Air travel hit year-high levels around Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. They are expected to reach another peak over Labor Day. However, many people have become warier about air travel in the past week. Southwest Airlines just announced a drop in bookings and said it may lose money because of the trend.

While travel in America has become riskier, some nations have much lower vaccination rates. In some African nations, the number is below 5%. Even in highly developed nations, the numbers can be relatively low. The vaccination rates in Japan and South Korea are 31%.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a list of nations based on COVID-19 infection rates as a resource for American travelers. The risk levels are broken into four levels: low risk, moderate risk, high risk and very high risk. The information is contained in a document called “COVID-19 Travel Recommendations by Destination.”

Level 4 carries this warning: “Avoid travel to these destinations. If you must travel to these destinations, make sure you are fully vaccinated before travel.”

Most of the nations on the Level 4 list are in Africa and South America. However, several nations in Europe that are major tourist destinations for Americans are also included. Among them are France, Ireland and Spain.

Here are the nations the CDC doesn’t want you to visit:

• Andorra
• Argentina
• Aruba
• Bahrain
• Bangladesh
• Botswana
• Brazil
• British Virgin Islands
• Burma (Myanmar)
• Burundi
• Central African Republic
• Chile
• Colombia
• Costa Rica
• Cuba
• Curaçao
• Cyprus
• Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Eswatini
• Fiji
• France
• French Guiana
• French Polynesia
• Georgia
• Gibraltar
• Greece
• Guadeloupe
• Guinea-Bissau
• Iceland
• Indonesia
• Iran
• Iraq
• Ireland
• Isle of Man
• Israel
• Kazakhstan
• Kyrgyzstan
• Kuwait
• Lesotho
• Libya
• Madagascar
• Malaysia
• Maldives
• Malta
• Martinique
• Mongolia
• Mozambique
• Namibia
• Nepal
• Netherlands, The
• Nicaragua
• Oman
• Panama
• Papua New Guinea
• Paraguay
• Portugal
• Réunion
• Rwanda
• Saint Barthelemy
• Saint Martin
• Saudi Arabia
• Seychelles
• Somalia
• South Africa
• South Sudan
• Spain
• Suriname
• Thailand
• Tunisia
• United Arab Emirates
• United Kingdom
• Uruguay
• Virgin Islands, U.S.
• Zimbabwe

Click here to see which 25 countries make up almost all US tourism.