The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has added Mexico, Brazil, Peru and other countries in the Americas to the “Do not travel” list for people who are traveling to the United States. The CDC says that they will soon add more countries to this list in order to keep US citizens safe.
According to World Health Organization (WHO) data, there have been over 2,000 cases of COVID-19 worldwide since January 1st 2019. Of those cases, approximately 50% were reported in Argentina with only 14 cases per million population. About 25% of all COVID-19 cases were reported by Columbia with 31 cases per million population. The CDC said that these high rates are why they choose to add those countries now.
The CDC also said that there have been a few cases of COVID-19 in the United States, but it is still very rare. The symptoms of COVID-19 are fevers and cold-like symptoms at first before turning into pneumonia and other respiratory problems about a week later. COVID-19 has a 20% mortality rate, which is much higher than common flu strains according to WHO data from 2018. For comparison, the common flu has a 0.4% mortality rate worldwide.
The following countries have been added to the “Do Not Travel” list:
Mexico, Brazil, Peru, China, Costa Rica and Columbia. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a statement urging people to not travel there as 19 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in those countries combined. Nine cases were confirmed in Mexico alone. The CDC also advises against all non-essential travel to the U.S., except Puerto Rico which was not affected by COVID-19.
On January 18th 2019 the Center for Disease Control and Prevention said that Mexico, Brazil, Peru and China have been added to its list of areas where it says people should consider postponing orling their trips due to outbreaks of the disease. As of January 22nd 2019, CDC has confirmed 19 COVID-19 cases in Mexico, Costa Rica and Columbia combined. 9 of these were amongst Mexican citizens who traveled to the United States.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advises against all non-essential travel to the U.S., except Puerto Rico which was not affected by COVID-19 due to its separate air traffic system. There are currently no active outbreaks of COVID-19 in any other country outside North America but there is reason for concern that more countries may become infected with the virus soon.
On January 31st 2019, new reports suggest that five people have died from COVID-19 on Hawaii while visiting on holiday from
Mexico. On February 2nd 2019, Hawaii declared a state of emergency as the number of cases continues to rise and President Donald Trump met with Mexico’s president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in Washington to discuss strategies for fighting the outbreak at their shared border.
On February 4th 2019 COVID-19 was found to be present and actively spreading on Easter island (Rapa Nui), Chile despite CDC warnings against unnecessary travel there.
