United States Lifts Ban On International Travel During Pandemic

Presiden Amerika Donald Trump (Twitter @WhiteHouse)

JAKARTA - The United States Department of State and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lifted restrictions on international travel for their nationals. Instead, the US issued a high-level health protocol to prevent transmission of COVID-19.

"With health and safety conditions improving in some countries and potentially worsening in others, the department is returning to its previous system of providing travel advisories for specific countries," the State Department said in a statement lifting the "Don't Travel" appeal.

The CDC also withdrew the global appeal, which contains requests for US citizens not to travel unnecessarily due to the coronavirus pandemic. Even though many countries are still in level 3 not to be visited.

A number of countries, including Thailand, New Zealand and Fiji, are placed at Tier 1, which means they are at low risk. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs issues updated alerts regarding visits to various countries.

One such warning took the form of "Level 4: Don't Travel" to 30 countries, including India, Russia, Bangladesh, Belize, Bolivia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, Haiti, Iran, Kosovo, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Honduras and Libya.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also issued a "Level 3: consider not traveling" appeal to a number of countries, including EU member states, Britain, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Liberia, Armenia, the Philippines, Laos and Australia.

The US itself has banned most foreign nationals from various parts of the world from entering its territory, including from the European Union and China. China has been added by the US State Department to its "Do Not Travel" appeal list since June.

The Department of State first issued a Level 4 Global Health Alert "Do Not Travel" on March 19, while the CDC adopted a "Level 3" high on March 27. The US is still in talks with the EU regarding permission for most US citizens to return to travel to Europe.