US Urges Citizens to ‘Reconsider’ Travel to Greece Due to Covid-19

Athens International Airport (archive photo).

The US State Department on Thursday issued a new advisory for Greece urging its citizens to reconsider plans for travel due to increasing cases of Covid-19.

The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued a Level 3 travel health notice for Greece after the number of confirmed coronavirus cases increased. The health center also recommends against non-essential travel to more than 200 destinations due to the high Covid-19 risk.

On Thursday, Greece’s National Organization for Public Health (EODY), reported 153 new Covid-19 infections.

The announcement comes one day after the State Department lifted its March 19 advisory warning US citizens against traveling abroad.

“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 on Thursday.

Friday’s notice on Greece encourages US travelers to visit the embassy’s Covid-19 page for more information, enrol in the Smart Traveler Enrolment Program (STEP) to receive security messages and make it easier to be located in an emergency, and to prepare a contingency plan for an emergency situation.

“We are closely monitoring health and safety conditions across the globe, working in partnership with the CDC and other agencies. As always, we will regularly update our destination-specific advice to US travelers as conditions evolve,” the State Department note said.

Other countries updated to Level 3 advisories include Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, UK and Ukraine.