As COVID cases surge in most of Europe, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention added two countries to its “very high” risk travel destination list on Monday.

Germany and Denmark were moved to the Level 4 “very high” risk category ahead of the holiday season as both countries fight increasing COVID cases.

Germany is seeing a fourth wave of the virus, which has caused the country’s Health Minister Jens Spahn to warn citizens on Monday that by the end of the winter, “pretty much everyone in Germany will be vaccinated, recovered or dead,” CNBC reported.

Denmark is also seeing a spike in coronavirus cases and is looking at implementing restrictions again after lifting them in September, CNN reported.

Germany and Denmark are not the only countries in Europe that are listed on the Level 4 risk list by the CDC as Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Romania, Norway, Switzerland, Greece, Ireland and the U.K. are also in the category.

Other countries deemed “very high” risk by the CDC, where the agency warns against traveling due to the “risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants,” include Costa Rica, Singapore and Russia.

The CDC determines that a country is Level 4 “very high” risk when it has more than 500 cases of the virus per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days. There are at least 75 destinations listed by the CDC as Level 4 “very high” risk for travel by Americans due to their COVID case count.

On Monday, the CDC also moved five destinations to the Level 3 “high” risk category– Aruba, Curacao, Guadeloupe, Israel and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

All five locations were previously listed as Level 4 “very high” risk and have now shown signs of reduced COVID cases. However, the CDC does recommend being fully vaccinated before traveling to these areas and does suggest avoiding nonessential travel.

These locations have had between 100 and 500 cases of the virus per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days.

Also improving their status this week were three African countries – Benin, Equatorial Guinea and Ethiopia. These three destinations moved from Level 3 “high” risk to Level 2 “moderate” risk for travel.

New Zealand was moved up to Level 2 from Level 1 “low” risk as it has seen its COVID cases rise recently.

The CDC deems Level 2 destinations as those locations that have had 50 to 99 virus cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days.

Several destinations were moved to the Level 1 “low” risk category, indicating that their COVID situation is improving. These locations have had less than 50 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past 28 days. The 12 destinations include Bangladesh, Eswatini, Ghana, Kenya, Kosovo, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Togo, Uganda, the United Arab Emirates,and Zimbabwe.

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Copenhagen. REUTERS
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