Travel Advisory for the UK Raised to Level 4

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the State Department on Monday raised their travel advisory for the UK to level 4. This is the highest travel advisory level by both CDC and the State Department. This suggests that travelers should avoid going to these countries. And if travel is necessary, they are requested by the state department to be fully vaccinated.

According to the CDC, “because of the current situation in the United Kingdom, even fully vaccinated travelers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID10 variants”.

Rise of COVID Cases in Both US and UK

Both the US and UK are now dealing with a surge in COVID19 cases. In the UK, there were 316,691 new cases reported in the past seven days. This is a 43% jump from the previous week’s numbers.

In the US, there is an average of 12 new daily cases per 100,000 people. Plus, Florida is fast becoming the epicenter of the pandemic with whopping 49.3 new cases per day per 100,000 people. Only 43% of Florida’s population were fully vaccinated. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC, even said that “this is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated”.

Both the UK and US are now dealing with the delta variant as the new dominant strain.

Americans Can Still Travel to the UK

Though the state department and CDC raised their travel advisory for the UK to level 4, Americans can still travel to the UK and the EU. Americans will just have to finish a 10-day quarantine. This rule applies to both vaccinated and unvaccinated American travelers.

International travel remains low. However, despite the raised travel advisory for the UK, there is still some good news for international travel. Vaccinated Americans can travel to Canada by August 9 without doing quarantine. And also, children who are traveling with vaccinated individuals don’t need to quarantine.