The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not add any new destinations to its list of nations and territories with a “high” risk of Covid-19 on Monday.
However, locations at “high” risk – designated as Level 3 – still account for almost 130 of the roughly 235 places monitored by the CDC.
That’s more than half of all places on the CDC site, and some of those destinations are among the most popular for tourists around the world.
Only one country, the sparsely populated desert nation of Namibia, dropped out of Level 3 to a lower risk rating this week.
Level 3 became the top rung in terms of risk level in April after the CDC overhauled its ratings system for assessing Covid-19 risk for travelers.
The designation applies to places that have had more than 100 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days. Level 2 and Level 1 are considered “moderate” and “low” risk, respectively.
Relatively few places in the world are currently in Levels 2 or 1.
Level 4, previously the highest risk category, is now reserved only for special circumstances, such as extremely high case counts, emergence of a new variant of concern or health care infrastructure collapse. Under the new system, no destinations have been placed at Level 4 so far.
“Unknown” is for places from which the CDC didn’t receive enough date to make an assessment.