The Trump administration today lifted its blanket warning against international travel due to the Covid-19 pandemic, opting instead to provide country-specific advice.
The State Department said that, in close coordination with the CDC, it will replace the Level 4 Health Advisory announced March 19 that advised U.S. citizens to avoid all international travel due to the global impact of Covid-19.
"With health and safety conditions improving in some countries and potentially deteriorating in others, the Department is returning to our previous system of country-specific levels of travel advice (with Levels from 1-4 depending on country-specific conditions) in order to give travelers detailed and actionable information to make informed travel decisions," the State Department said in a statement.
The department added that U.S. citizens should still "exercise caution when traveling abroad due to the unpredictable nature of the pandemic."
Among the countries still with a Level 4 Do Not Travel warning related to Covid-19 are the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas and Peru. Most European countries are at Level 3 in that regard.
Travelers from the U.S., which has far more cases of Covid-19 than any other country, are not permitted to visit the EU, the U.K. or Canada for nonessential travel, among other nations.
ASTA said that while it welcomes the news, since State and the CDC have travel advisories against "the vast majority of the world," the action will have limited immediate impact.
"There are many steps that need to be taken to get the virus under control and return to some sense of normalcy in travel, and this is certainly a step in the right direction," the Society said in a statement.