ATLANTA, Georgia: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has increased the number of countries that Americans should avoid traveling to due to spreading Covid-19 infections.

Prominent on the new list were Barbados and Croatia.

Other countries raised to Level 4 warnings because of Covid were Austria, Armenia, Latvia, and New Caledonia.

More than 80 countries are now on the rapidly-changing list, including popular travel destinations, such as Jamaica, Aruba, Belize, the UK, and Greece.

The CDC also lowered travel alert levels for several countries from Level 4 to 3, which include France, Iceland, Portugal, Argentina, Morocco, Nepal, South Africa, and Lesotho.

The travel alerts of both the CDC and the U.S. State Department are recommendations and not restrictions, so travelers may fly to any available destination but are subject to local COVID-19 restrictions and must provide proof of a negative coronavirus test to board international flights back to the U.S., even if fully vaccinated.

COVID-19 risks are assessed by the CDC based upon the number of new cases and trends in each country. The Travel Health Notice level can be raised if there is a large registered increase in COVID-19 cases or a destination’s case count meets or exceeds the threshold for a higher level for 14 consecutive days.

To be classified as Level 4, a destination must have more than 500 new cases per 100,000 persons over the past 28 days, or more than 500 cases in total if the population is less than 100,000.