CDC adds Caribbean, African travel destinations to COVID warning list

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) added four countries Monday to its list of high-risk travel destinations for COVID-19.

The countries are Antigua and Barbuda, Lesotho, South Africa, and Taiwan.

Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center released figures Tuesday announcing 65,833 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country, 65,794 of which had been spread domestically.

Two omicron subvariants have propelled infections in South Africa, moving case numbers there from 300 per day early last month to 8,000 per day last week. However, symptoms are mild and severe cases and deaths have not increased, The Associated Press reported on Saturday.

Lesotho, a country located inside the larger country of South Africa, has experienced a similar wave.

The CDC maintains a list of countries sorted into four levels of COVID-19 severity: Low, Moderate, High and Special Circumstances/Do Not Travel. It also includes a designation for “COVID-19 Unknown,” which it currently applies to 52 countries.

The COVID-19 High category, which the four new countries were added to this week, is the largest of the groups, containing 110 countries altogether.

There are currently no countries on the Special Circumstances/Do Not Travel list.

The announcement of the additions to the list of High risk countries came the same day the CDC reported that the U.S. has reached 1 million deaths from the virus.

The COVID-19 death count continues to rise in the U.S., which has seen more deaths per capita than neighboring Canada or countries in Western Europe, although the rate of fatalities has fallen significantly as vaccines, a new treatment pill from Pfizer known as Paxlovid and recent variants have reduced the risks of the virus.

Since 2021, deaths resulting from COVID-19 have occurred disproportionately among those who have not gotten initial vaccine doses or booster shots.