COVID-19 in the Caribbean: CDC says to 'avoid travel' to these 5 islands

Bailey Schulz, USA TODAY
·1 min read

Federal health officials warned U.S. travelers to avoid nearly every Caribbean island, moving Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, St. Barts, St. Martin and Guadeloupe to its level 4 travel advisory level because of "very high" levels of COVID-19.

The islands join other Caribbean destinations, including the Bahamas and Aruba, on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's highest COVID-19 risk level. Fiji, Colombia, Costa Rica, Kuwait, Mongolia, Niger, Peru, Romania, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates were placed on level 4 Monday.

“Avoid travel to these destinations,” the CDC says on its website. “If you must travel to these destinations, make sure you are fully vaccinated before travel.”

The CDC warns against traveling to Jamaica while COVID-19 rates are high.
The CDC warns against traveling to Jamaica while COVID-19 rates are high.

There are 116 countries on the CDC’s level 4 travel advisory level. Larger countries are moved to level 4 when they report more than 500 cases of new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people over the past 28 days.

Other changes to the CDC's travel health notice list this week include:

  • The Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Guatemala, India, Kosovo and Mali moved from level 2 to level 3.

  • Equatorial Guinea, Kyrgyzstan, Japan and Senegal moved from level 1 to level 3.

  • Bangladesh moved from level 1 to level 2.

  • Brunei moved from level unknown to level 2.

► CDC travel health notice: The CDC warns US travelers to avoid more than 100 countries. Do people care?

Follow USA TODAY reporter Bailey Schulz on Twitter: @bailey_schulz.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: CDC warns US travelers to avoid Jamaica, Fiji, others due to COVID-19