United States Eases Travel Advisories for Greece

Photo source: U.S. Department of State: Consular Affairs

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the US State Department eased travel advisories for dozens of countries including Greece this week.

The US State Department revised on Tuesday its travel advisories for 85 countries and territories, including Greece, and Japan ahead of the Olympic Games to open on July 23, where foreign spectators have been banned.

On Tuesday, the CDC lowered Greece from a “Level 4” rating advising against travel to recommending travel for fully vaccinated individuals. The CDC said that revisions were based on new criteria.

Source: US State Department

The State Department also revised its guidance placing Greece at Level 3, which advises travelers to “reconsider travel”  due to Covid-19 from the previous Level 4 advising against travel.

According to Reuters, an additional 50 countries and territories have been lowered to “Level 2” or “Level 1” with Singapore, Israel, South Korea, Iceland, Belize, and Albania listed as countries with the lowest Covid-19 risk.

Greece, together with France, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Hungary and Italy are among the countries in “Level 3”.

The State Department said that not all ratings were revised taking into consideration factors such as “ commercial flight availability,  restrictions  on US citizen entry, and impediments to obtaining Covid test results within three calendar days”.

The CDC also said it expects more countries to see their travel ratings improve in the coming weeks.

The US is currently not allowing admission to non-US citizens who have within the previous 14 days been to China, the UK, Ireland, India, South Africa, Brazil, Iran, and to the 26 Schengen nations in Europe without border controls.

Reuters reports that the US government will be forming working groups with the EU and the UK to determine how best to restart travel safely after more than a year of Covid-19 restrictions.