CDC Says Do Not Travel Here Now

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) this week announced a new list of countries to avoid as the spread of COVID and its variants fails to slow. These destinations have been given the nation's highest warning—Level 4—which recommends avoiding all travel. "Avoid travel to these destinations. If you must travel to these destinations, make sure you are fully vaccinated before travel," they reiterate. "Getting vaccinated prevents severe illness, hospitalizations, and death. Unvaccinated people should get vaccinated and continue masking until they are fully vaccinated. With the Delta variant, this is more urgent than ever." Read on to see which destinations to steer clear of right now.

The death rate is on the rise in this neighbor island of Aruba. COVID cases have slowly escalated since December, hitting highest numbers in late July.

Currently, Martinique is seeing a fast spread of COVID-19 variants, so much so that the CDC is urging that travelers skip travel to this French island just north of St. Lucia. The infection rate stands at 7,475 for a population of 376,480—an infection rate of 2%.

Serving as one of the Caribbean's biggest hubs with one of the biggest airports, Saint Martin is facing steeply rising numbers of new COVID cases. Late July has seen a spike thanks to COVID-19 variants.

This island midway between England and Ireland is reporting 148 new COVID infections per day since the tail end of July. This marks a fast and dramatic spike in their numbers since December.

This island may be home to massive villas—a favorite among Jay-Z, Beyonce, Derek Jeter and Miranda Kerr—but those huge castles of social isolation aren't enough to keep COVID at bay. July brought a rise of new cases to this playground of the rich and famous. The good news is that these numbers are beginning to slow down as we move into August.

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Despite swift vaccination measures—with nearly 70% of the population vaccinated and age limits newly lowered to 12—Ireland is seeing 1,307 new COVID cases each day as it eases out of its third and longest lockdown. Further complications may follow as religious leaders vocalize unwillingness to follow the latest government-issued COVID restrictions.

At the time of writing, Greece is suffering a big upsurge in COVID—500 cases per 100,000 residents, all reported in the last two weeks at this Mediterranean getaway. The reach of this spread includes a slew of vacation hotspots, including the islands of Santorini, Mykonos, Samos, Paros and Naxos. It's even crept into the Olympics, with four athletes on Greece's artistic swimming team pulled from competing due to COVID infections.

The three U.S. Virgin Islands are citing 4,629 new positive cases. Vaccination rates are lagging in this territory, with only 38,220 people of 106,631 fully vaccinated.

This French overseas region between Montserrat and Dominica just announced a new lockdown to fight the rising number of COVID cases. The measure starts on August 4 and will last at least three weeks.

Despite their early July ban on all travelers not fully vaccinated, this island in the middle of the Mediterranean has been unable to halt the march of COVID. This, after announcing in May that 70% of the adult population had received full vaccination status, which, in theory, would have granted Malta herd immunity.

This country off the southern tip of Spain just reported 29 new COVID cases. Though the number isn't significant for their population of 33,680, what is significant is that the majority of these cases arose within the last two weeks.

Located fully within the boundaries of South Africa, this tiny nation has seen a huge spike in COVID cases in the last week. They're reporting 34 new infections per 100,000 people.

Current numbers put Libya at 97% of its COVID peak, with 285 infections per 100,000 people, as reported in the last two weeks. Moreover, only 4% of the population is fully vaccinated.

This country located on the border between Spain and France is reporting 24 new infections per day. In the last week, that number has totaled 220 per 100,000 residents.

This Central Asia nation bordering Russia, China and Uzbekistan is at the height of its COVID peak—with each day ushering in 7,532 new cases.

Iran currently ranks number 12 in the world for the most COVID cases—just behind Spain and Italy. Infection rates are still climbing, with newest counts adding 39,019 new cases to the overall totals. This list just represents the new places added to the CDC's Level 4 list; for the complete list, go to the CDC here.