There have been cancellations and chaos on US airlines, Canada and Japan have been cracking down on Covid rule-breakers, but the UK is opening up to more and more vaccinated visitors.
Here's what we learned in pandemic travel this week.
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1. The US 'do not travel' list has got even bigger
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US citizens have already been advised against travel to countries with more than 500 Covid cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days, which includes popular tourist spots such as the UK, Spain and Maldives.
Now the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has given 16 new destinations its top risk designation of "Level 4: Covid-19 Very High."
They are (deep breath): Andorra, Curaçao, Gibraltar, Greece, Guadeloupe, Iran, Ireland, Isle of Man, Kazakhstan, Lesotho, Libya, Malta, Martinique, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Martin and the US Virgin Islands.
That means US citizens should avoid travel to these places and, if they really must travel, they should be fully vaccinated.
2. The UK is opening up inbound and outbound travel
UK case numbers have fallen tremendously since England dropped nearly all Covid restrictions on July 19, but there were still close to 183,000 new cases in the past week.
However, the country has had a very successful vaccine rollout, with more than 58% of the population now fully vaccinated.
Wales is set to drop most restrictions on August 7 while Scotland will do the same on August 9. Northern Ireland -- across the Irish Sea -- has its own region-specific measures.
Fully jabbed travelers from the United States and EU are now allowed to travel into the UK quarantine-free -- although of course the CDC warns US citizens against doing just this.
In terms of outbound travel, the UK updated its "green list" on Thursday, adding Austria, Germany, Latvia, Norway, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia to the list for quarantine-free travel. world travel