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U.S. State Department Eases Global Coronavirus Travel Advisory

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testifies before a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in July. The State Department has lifted its global health advisory warning against international travel.
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testifies before a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in July. The State Department has lifted its global health advisory warning against international travel.

The State Department has lifted its Level 4 global travel advisory, the highest warning against U.S. citizens traveling internationally, citing changing conditions in the coronavirus pandemic.

"With health and safety conditions improving in some countries and potentially deteriorating in others, the Department is returning to our previous system of country-specific levels of travel advice (with Levels from 1-4 depending on country-specific conditions), in order to give travelers detailed and actionable information to make informed travel decisions," the department said in a news release.

"We are closely monitoring health and safety conditions across the globe, working in partnership with the CDC and other agencies," it added. "As always, we will regularly update our destination-specific advice to U.S. travelers as conditions evolve."

The previous advisory had been in place since March 19.

While the U.S. has decided to relax its universal advisory, many nations are restricting U.S. citizens from entering because of the high number of coronavirus cases still being reported within U.S. borders.

Some of the most popular travel destinations for U.S. tourists, including Canada, Mexico and the European Union, have imposed strict restrictions.

Dozens of countries remain under the State Department's Level 4 travel advisory for issues ranging from the coronavirus to terrorism.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Alana Wise is a politics reporter on the Washington desk at NPR.

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