5 more European tourist hotspots now on Covid ‘stop list’

France, which was the world’s top tourist destination in the times before the pandemic, has just landed on the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) “stop list”. That’s after the European nation that once hosted tens of millions of tourists a year was assigned the highest Covid-19 risk level.

“Avoid travel to these destinations,” the CDC says about all the nations on its ‘Level 4’ Covid-19 risk countries. In case a person still “must” go there, the CDC recommends they are fully vaccinated before travel. France was not the only one to hit the list on Tuesday, though.

It was accompanied by a popular safari destination – Tanzania – the sunny Mediterranean island of Cyprus, and also Jordan, the Middle Eastern nation housing a popular ancient archeological site and tourist attraction of Petra.

A total of seven nations have been added to the list, including the tiny European states of Andorra and Liechtenstein as well as Portugal. Now, almost all of Europe is designated as a “very high” risk destination by the CDC among a total of 80 nations on that list.

Those falling into this category have reported more than 500 Covid-19 cases per 100,000 residents over the past 28 days.

The only exceptions are Spain and Italy – another two of the world’s most popular tourist destinations – as well as Sweden, Finland, and Malta. But don’t just rush to pack your bags, since these nations are all designated as “high” risk destinations and the CDC would like to see any person fully vaccinated before traveling there.

In fact, the CDC generally recommends avoiding any international travel at all until a person is fully vaccinated.

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