Singapore is once again near the top of the dangerous travel list according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, after the island city-state relaxed its own COVID-19 restrictions.
Singapore is one of over 40 destinations receiving the CDC’s Level 4 designation, for very high risk. Countries labeled as Level 4 have had more than 500 new cases per 100,000 residents in the past four weeks, and U.S. citizens are advised against, but not restricted from, traveling to those places.
The major factor at play was Singapore’s decision to allow unrestricted travel to vaccinated people from eight other countries on the Level 4 list, including the United Kingdom, Croatia, Greece, Switzerland, and Israel. Their new decision also included U.S. travelers, or this advisory wouldn’t be necessary.
While vaccinated people are at a lower risk of catching or spreading the disease, breakthrough cases do occur, and vaccinated people can still spread the virus without becoming infected themselves. The vaccine teaches your immune system how to deal with the virus more effectively with less risk of harm to you. No vaccine is a shield against the virus entering your body in the first place, nor do they instantly kill it when it does.
There is one factor that places this in a better light, however. This is the first week since August 2021 that only one nation has been added to the CDC’s Level 4 list.
Previously, Singapore was working towards a zero-COVID strategy, which included entirely closed borders, major restrictions, and government support. But in recent months, Singapore and other Asia-Pacific nations have been pivoting away from a zero goal towards the more moderate strategy of living with and managing the virus.
So far, there are only 25 countries on the CDC’s Level 1 list, for countries with fewer than 50 cases per 100,000 people. And most of those are there for one reason – they’ve kept their borders closed.
Photo by rangga purwanto / Shutterstock.com