US State Department lifts advisory on avoiding int'l travel

Washington, Aug 7 The US State Department has lifted the Level 4 travel advisory that had instructed citizens to avoid all international travels due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"On August 6, in close coordination with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Department of State lifted the Global Level 4 Health Advisory," it said in a statement on Thursday.

The State Department said it would return to previous systems of country-specific levels of travel advice "in order to give travellers detailed and actionable information to make informed travel decisions", reports Xinhua news agency.

"This will also provide US citizens more detailed information about the current status in each country,.

"We continue to recommend US citizens exercise caution when travelling abroad due to the unpredictable nature of the pandemic," it added.

Many countries, however, are still closed for American travellers or require restrictive measures.

The CDC has also recommended against non-essential travel to more than 200 destinations due to the high COVID-19 risk.

The Level 4 advisory, the highest level of travel advisory known as "Do Not Travel", was issued on March 19 when the US only had about 11,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and 155 deaths.

The announcement comes as President Donald Trump's administration is trying to get the US back to normal.

The overall number of global coronavirus cases in the US stood at 4,881,974, with 160,090 deaths as of Friday, respectively, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

Both tallies currently account for the world's highest figures.