Oct. 19 (UPI) — The United States on Monday warned against travel to Singapore, just as the Southeast Asian country prepares to lift quarantine restrictions for vaccinated U.S. travelers.
Both the U.S. State Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged travelers to avoid traveling to Singapore citing “very high” levels of COVID-19 in the country.
The “Level 4: Very High” distinction is the most severe travel advisory offered by either agency.
The CDC defines a “very high” COVID-19 risk as a travel destination that has reported more than 500 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents within the past 28 days.
Singapore has reported a record high 70,374 COVID-19 cases in the last 28 days, according to data by Johns Hopkins University.
Earlier this month, Singapore announced it would open up new “vaccinated travel lanes” allowing fully vaccinated travelers from the United States as well as Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and Britain to travel to the country by simply providing a negative PCR test both 48 hours before departure and upon arrival.
The CDC broadly recommends that Americans avoid international travel entirely unless they are fully vaccinated, but also warns that fully vaccinated travelers may still face risk of infection when visiting Level 4 destinations.
