Washington (People's Daily) – After more than four months, the US State Department on Thursday lifted its Global Level 4 Health Advisory warning US citizens against traveling abroad. 

The Global Level 4 Health Advisory initially put in place on March 19, 2020, advised US citizens to avoid all international travel due to the global impact of COVID-19.

The US State Department is returning to the 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. 

However, the US State Department still recommends that US citizens exercise caution when traveling abroad due to the “unpredictable nature of the pandemic”.

“Yet despite the lifting of the global health advisory, American travelers are not welcome everywhere,” The Hill commented. 

As of 5:30 pm Eastern Time on August 6, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the US was 4.86 million, according to the latest numbers from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. 

(Photo: agencies)

CNN reported that although the guidance has been lifted, American travelers continue to face travel restrictions in countries worldwide due to rising cases of the deadly disease in the US.

The European Union instituted a ban on U.S. visitors beginning July 1. And the UK requires travelers from the US to quarantine for 14 days.

There are restrictions on non-essential travel between the US and its neighbors to the north and south - Canada and Mexico - until at least late August.

The US Centers for Disease Control also dropped its global advisory recommending against all nonessential international travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but nearly all countries remain on its highest Level 3 advisory to avoid all non-essential travel. About 20 countries are listed as a low or very low risk of COVID-19. 

However, the classification does not seem to be entirely based on the actual situation of the epidemic in each country.

Reuters reported that the US has barred most non-US citizens from many parts of the world from traveling to the US, including from the EU and China. China has been on the US State Department's “Do Not Travel” advisory since June, although compared to the US, the daily new cases in China are much lower.