According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's regularly updated travel advisories list, Switzerland and Puerto Rico are now among the highest-risk destinations for travelers.
The CDC recommends that people avoid traveling to locations designated with the "Level 4: Covid-19 Very High" notice. Anyone who must travel should be fully vaccinated. First, the agency advises.
Seven destinations moved up on August 30 from the "Level 3: Covid-19 High" list to Level 4:
Azerbaijan
Estonia
Guam
North Macedonia
Puerto Rico
Saint Lucia
Switzerland
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The CDC's evolving list of travel notices ranges from Level 1 ("low") to Level 4 ("very high").
According to CDC criteria, destinations that fall into the "Covid-19 Very High" Level 4 category have had more than 500 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days.Â
The Level 3 category applies to destinations with between 100 and 500 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days.
Switzerland has had 659 laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the past four weeks, according to the country's Federal Office of Public Health. On August 29, nearly a third of Switzerland's intensive care units were occupied by people with coronavirus.Â
In North Macedonia, slightly less than a quarter of residents were fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as of August 30, while 9% were partially vaccinated. And of Saint Lucia's population of around 185,000 people, it has fully vaccinated 15.1% and partially vaccinated 4.8%.
New 'Level 3' destinations
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Ten other destinations moved to the "Level 3: Covid-19 High" category on Monday.
Bermuda, Canada, Germany, and Moldova moved up from Level 2. Bahrain, Indonesia, Namibia, Oman, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe moved down from Level 4.
CDC guidance for Level 3 destinations urges unvaccinated travelers to avoid nonessential travel to those locations.
The CDC has recommended avoiding all international travel until you are fully vaccinated in its broader travel guidance.
"Fully vaccinated travelers are less likely to get and spread Covid-19. However, international travel poses additional risks, and even fully vaccinated travelers might be at increased risk for getting and possibly spreading some Covid-19 variants," the agency said.
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US travelers dropped from EU safe list as Covid cases surge
The European Union recommendedthat Americansd be banned from nonessential travel to its member states after a rise in Covid-19 cases in the United States on Mondays.
Countries within the 27-nation bloc,
 Including France, Italy, and Germany, have been advised to reinstate coronavirus-related restrictions and halt the arrival of tourists from the US and five other countries.
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Binding for EU member states. That means it remains up to each EU country to decide whether to allow "nonessential travel to the EU for fully vaccinated travelers."
In May, Europe had begun opening up to US travelers, with destinations dependent on tourism dollars from across the Atlantic eager to recoup heavy losses incurred during successive lockdowns.
The European Council, the EU's governing body, recommended that the bloc lift restrictions on nonessential travel from 14 countries, including the United States.
However, Covid-19 cases in the US have surged in recent weeks, as the highly infectious Delta variant spreads among unvaccinated Americans. Covid-19 cases among children are also hitting levels not seen since winter.
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"What is going on now is both entirely predictable but entirely preventable. And you know we know we have the wherewithal with vaccines to turn this around," said Dr.
 Anthony Fauci, the US government's top infectious diseases expert. "We could turn this around, and we could do it efficiently and quickly if we just get those people vaccinated."
Nationally, 52.1% of the population was fully vaccinated as of Saturday, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Florida on Saturday had the highest Covid-19 hospitalization rate in the country, with 75 patients per 100,000 residents in hospitals with the virus, according to data from federal health officials and Johns Hopkins University. It also reached yet another pandemic high of Covid-19 cases Friday, reporting 690.5 new cases per 100,000 people each day from August 20 to August 26, state data showed.
Fewer than 50% of people in South Carolina, Louisiana and Texas are fully vaccinated. Studies have shown that full vaccination is necessary for optimal protection against the Delta variant.
Several hospitals in those four states -- Florida, South Carolina, Texas, and Louisiana -- struggle with oxygen scarcity. According to state health officials and hospital consultants, some are at risk of having to use their reserve supply or risk running out of oxygen imminently.
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