Washington – The federal government is canceling another one of its responses to the pandemic.
On Monday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dropped country-by-country COVID-19-related travel notices that they began issuing early in the pandemic.
The reason: Fewer countries are testing for the virus or reporting the number of COVID-19 cases. According to the agency, this limits the CDC’s ability to calculate traveler risks.
CDC spokeswoman Kristin Nordlund said the agency will not publish a travel health notice for an individual country unless a situation such as a worrisome new type of virus changes the CDC’s travel recommendations for that country.
RELATED: COVID update: Illinois reports 1,770 new cases, 1 new death
The CDC still recommends travelers stay up to date on vaccinations and follow the recommendations on its international travel page.
This page divides countries into three categories – practicing usual precautions, enhanced precautions or avoiding non-essential travel.
Restrictions such as testing and quarantine requirements significantly slowed international travel early in the pandemic, but many countries eventually lifted those rules for full vaccination and boosted people to increase tourism.
In early 2020, before vaccines were available, the United States banned people who had recently been in any of more than thirty countries. In 2021, the US instead began requiring people to test negative for COVID-19 shortly before planes boarded in the US, and that rule was eventually dropped as well.
Copyright © 2022 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
.
[ad_2]
