T&T added to CDC’s ‘very high’ risk travel category, Americans warned to avoid travel here

Brent Pinheiro 

[email protected] 

Trinidad & Tobago joined several other countries on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Level 4 COVID-19 Advisory List. The announcement on Tuesday, in the US public health agency’s weekly update, comes mere days after T&T registered 10,000 active COVID-19 cases. According to the CDC, a country is moved to Level 4 when more than 500 cases per 100,000 residents are registered in the past 28 days.    

T&T was previously at Level 3, which only advised against nonessential travel if unvaccinated. The Level 4 travel category advises Americans to avoid travel to T&T unless vaccinated due to very high levels of COVID, however, the agency warns that even fully vaccinated people may be at risk of getting and spreading COVID-19 variants.   

“Fully vaccinated travellers are less likely to get and spread Covid-19. However, international travel poses additional risks, and even fully vaccinated travellers might be at increased risk for getting and possibly spreading some COVID-19 variants,” the agency says on its website.   

T&T’s border policy already only allows vaccinated non-nationals to enter the country. However, there is nothing preventing unvaccinated people holding dual nationality from entering once they present a T&T passport at Immigration.    

Poland, Niger, and Papua New Guinea were also added to the list yesterday. There are over 70 countries already at Level 4 on the CDC’s list, including Barbados, Dominica, Germany, and the United Kingdom.