7 More “Very High-Risk” Travel Destinations, According to the CDC

On August 12, we wrote, “Where COVID-19 and travel are concerned, when one door opens, another one shuts. Or sometimes seven shut.” That was following the news that seven countries had been added onto the “very high-risk” travel destination list by the CDC. And now here we are again, less than three weeks later, writing to tell you that seven more of those doors are now also closing.

According to a new report from CNN, as of this week, seven new destinations have officially been added on to the list of high-risk destinations. To be deemed “Covid-19 Very High” Level 4, countries must have experienced more than 500 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days, as per the CDC’s standard. The list of countries newly added to said “Level 4: Very High” category are:

Azerbaijan
Estonia
Guam
North Macedonia
Puerto Rico
Saint Lucia
Switzerland

Frankly, this is all starting to feel a little too reminiscent of last summer, and if you’ve since blocked out just how truly awful the last long, COVID winter was, allow this to serve as a reminder. It was the worst. And to give you an idea of what we’re up against with this new Delta variant — there were 264 thousand new COVID cases confirmed on August 29 of last year, globally. On August 29 of this year, there were 384 thousand new cases.

And while it’s certainly disturbing on a multitude of levels, it’s even more so for countries like Puerto Rico and Saint Lucia, both of which rely heavily on tourism and will likely suffer economically from a drop-off in visitors for the second time in a year and a half.

So in case you needed to hear this for, like, the millionth time: Get vaccinated. Wear a mask. And for fuck’s sake, travel responsibly. We’d really love to not be back here again another two weeks from now writing about seven more countries that have found their way back into the Level 4 category.