The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its international COVID-19 travel advisory system, dropping all countries from its highest-risk category.
On Monday, the CDC removed all destinations from under the “Level 4: Special Circumstances/Do Not Travel” designation, which warns travelers to avoid nonessential travel due to very high levels of coronavirus cases.
The agency said in a statement last week that its updated travel advisory system will now reserve Level 4 notices for "special circumstances, such as rapidly escalating case trajectory or extremely high case counts, emergence of a new variant of concern, or healthcare infrastructure collapse."
The other three level warnings will continue to be determined based on 28-day coronavirus incidence or case counts.
About 120 countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy and other popular European destinations, have a Level 3 advisory for a "high" COVID-19 warning.
"Make sure you are up to date with your COVID-19 vaccines before traveling to these destinations," the CDC warns. "If you are not up to date with your COVID-19 vaccines, avoid travel to these destinations."
The updated travel advisory comes a day after a federal judge in Florida threw out a national mask mandate in public transportation across the U.S. Major airlines and many of the busiest airports rushed to drop their requirements on Monday after the Transportation Security Administration announced it wouldn’t enforce a January 2021 security directive that applied to airplanes, airports, taxis and other mass transit.