The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the US State Department eased travel advisories for more than 110 countries and territories, including Greece this week.
The CDC’s new ratings, posted on a CDC website on Monday, include 61 nations that were lowered from its highest “Level 4” rating that discouraged all travel to recommending travel for fully vaccinated individuals.
The CDC said that revisions were based on new criteria.
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 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.