The travel advisory issued by the U.S. State Department four months ago has been lifted on Thursday, saying conditions no longer warrant a global alert.

On March 19, the state department issued the Level Four: Do Not Travel advisory, the highest level of the travel advisory. It urged U.S. citizens to avoid global travel due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The advisory said, "with health and safety conditions improving in some countries and potentially deteriorating in others," the travel advisories will go back to its previous system of country-specific levels instead of a global one, the CNN reported.

The department believed it would give travelers "detailed and actionable information" to make decisions. The new system will also give U.S. citizens more details on the COVID-19 status of each country, read the advisory.

Airport
(Photo : Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay )

The new order came after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) changed its COVID-19 travel advisory information. Twenty locations had their "do not travel" warnings lifted by the CDC, the Time reported.

Despite this, the center is still telling people to stay away from the vast majority of the world. The CDC is also recommending people to stay put if they plan to travel to some 200 places.

Since the pandemic is unpredictable, the state department is also telling U.S. citizens to be cautious when making global travel plans. 

U.S. Citizens Still Faces Global Travel Restrictions

Even though the agency's guidelines have been lifted, Americans are still going to face the restrictions set by countries that they wish to go to due to rising cases of COVID-19 in the United States.

For one, the European Union has blocked entry to U.S. tourists, and the U.K. is also making travelers isolate for 14 days upon the arrival.

There are also rules for non-essential travel between the U.S. and nearby countries in the north and south like Canada and Mexico. The rules are expected to last up to late August.

The state department said they are closely monitoring the health and safety conditions across the globe. They are working with the CDC and other agencies to make sure people in the country are safe when they travel. The agency promised to update its destination-specific advice as time passes by.

The CDC said places like Thailand, Fiji, and New Zealand are part of the low-risk group. But they also warned certain people like older adults and those with underlying medical risks to talk to their doctors first before planning a trip.

According to USA Today, some 50 countries were given a level four "do not travel" advice as of Thursday. The list includes countries with a high number of coronavirus cases like Brazil, India, and Russia.

The list also includes countries with other safety concerns. On the other hand, the department urged people to "reconsider travel" if they plan to go to places on a level three alert.

When the state department first issued a "do not travel" global travel warning in March, there were only about 380,000 COVID-19 cases worldwide.

As of Thursday, the world is looking at 18.9 million cases, according to John Hopkins data. Around 4.9 million of these cases are from the U.S. 

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