CDC raises travel advisories for France, Portugal to highest level amid COVID surge

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention raised COVID-19 travel advisories to their highest levels for a number of countries on Monday, including France and Portugal.

Why it matters: The detection of the new Omicron variant last month has spurred fears of a new wave of virus infections.

State of play: Level 4 travel advisories were also issued for Jordan, Cyprus, Liechtenstein, Andorra and Tanzania on Monday.

The big picture: The Level 4 alert, the CDC's highest classification for COVID risk, comes with the recommendation to avoid travel and, when that's not possible, to be fully vaccinated against the virus.

• The CDC is also warning due to the "very high" levels of COVID-19 cases in these countries that, "even fully vaccinated travelers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants."

Go deeper: COVID cases surge in South Africa in sign Omicron wave is coming