US COVID watchdog places Malta on ‘very high risk’ travel list

The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention has added Malta to its ‘very high risk’ travel list along with 15 other countries. 

According to the CDC website, a risk designation of “Level 4: Covid-19 Very High” means people should avoid travel to these locations. Those who must travel should be fully vaccinated first.

The CDC said that destinations that fall in the “very high” risk category had more than 500 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days. 

The 16 destinations are Andorra, Curaçao, Gibraltar, Greece, Guadeloupe, Iran, Ireland, Isle of Man, Kazakhstan, Lesotho, Libya, Malta, Martinique, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Martin and US Virgin Islands.

On Tuesday, Malta registered 69 new cases and 134 recoveries. Cases are starting to decrease after a surge in infections last month when travel to the island was reopened. 

Until yesterday, 762,832 vaccine doses were administered, of which 400,760 were first doses. 385,049 people are fully vaccinated.