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

Where COVID-19 and travel are concerned, when one door opens, another one shuts. Or sometimes seven shut. According to a new report from CNN Travel, the CDC has officially added seven countries back onto the list of the highest-risk locations. The countries that have been added to the “Level 4: Very High” category are:

•Aruba
•Eswatini
•France
•French Polynesia
•Iceland
•Israel
•Thailand

Back in March of this year, Iceland became the first European and Schengen country to open to vaccinated travelers coming from both the U.S. and U.K., allowing them to forego both quarantine and COVID testing. “Our experience and data so far indicate very strongly that there is very little risk of infection stemming from individuals who have acquired immunity against the disease, either by vaccination or by prior infection,” Thórólfur Gudnason, Iceland’s Chief Epidemiologist, said in a statement at the time, the Delta variant notwithstanding. Now, despite boasting one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, COVID cases are at an all-time high, making their addition to the list even more alarming.

This all comes fresh off the news that the U.K. would finally be opening its borders to vaccinated travelers, and while being added to the highest-risk category for travel doesn’t mean that you’re prohibited from traveling to those countries, the CDC vehemently advises against it. If you must? Make sure you’re vaccinated, but know that even the vaccine doesn’t guarantee that you can’t still get, and subsequently spread, COVID — which is exactly what we’re now seeing play out in Iceland.

It’s a somber reminder that we’re not yet out of the woods, and guidance will likely continue to change for the foreseeable future.