US CDC warns against travel to Guyana due to “very high” COVID-19 risk

In its latest travel health notice, the United States’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has listed Guyana as a country where there is a very high risk of contracting COVID-19 and has warned against travelling here.

The CDC says it uses the travel health notices to alert travellers to health threats around the world.

From November 21st (last Saturday) it updated its 3-level system to a 4-level system for COVID-19 risk and updated the criteria used to list countries.

That update saw Guyana being placed on the “Level 4: Very High Level of COVID-19” list along with over 160 other territories/ destinations, including Suriname, Barbados, Brazil, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. The Level 4 notice says that travellers should avoid all travel to those countries or territories listed.

According to the CDC guidelines, it advises that travellers avoid all travel to Guyana as it may increase the chance of contracting the virus.

The United States Department of State’s travel advisory, which was updated yesterday, placed Guyana on its “Level 3:

Reconsider travel” list and it said travellers should reconsider travel to Guyana due to COVID- 19 and to exercise increased caution in the country due to crime.

The CDC’s primary criteria to determine the country or destination’s Travel Health Notice Level ( THN) is done through data gathered from the World Health Organization (WHO) and considers the territory’s incidence rate (“cumulative new cases per 100,000 people over the past 28 days”) and the new case trajectory of the territory, observing if new cases over the past 28 days are increasing, decreasing or stable.

Meanwhile, for its secondary criteria, which backs up the primary criteria, the CDC uses hospitalisation rates and cumulative testing positivity rate. This data, it said, is obtained from official sources like the country’s Ministry of Health website.

However, the CDC advised persons who are still desirous of travelling to those territories to be tested for the virus within one to three days before the trip and to follow entry requirements for the destination and provide required health information.