Dec 6, 2021 - Health

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

Ivana Saric

A plane seen outside an airport window — Angus Mordant/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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

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

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