Jan. 4 (UPI) -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday warned Americans against traveling to Aruba citing "very high" levels of COVID-19.
The CDC designated Aruba as a "Level 4: Very High" COVID-19 risk, its highest risk category, indicating more than 500 cases per 100,000 residents have been registered in the past 28 days.
"Because of the current situation in Aruba, even fully vaccinated travelers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants," the CDC said.
Additionally, the CDC said travelers should follow recommendations or requirements in Aruba including mask wearing and maintaining 6 feet of distance from others.
Last week, the CDC recommended that people avoid travel on cruise ships, increasing cruise travel to Level 4 risk.
Also on Tuesday, the CDC downgraded Azerbaijan, Moldova, Mongolia and Romania from Level 4 to "Level 3: High" risk indicating between 100 and 500 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days.
The Bahamas and Sint Maarten were upgraded to Level 3 from Level 2, while Kenya moved from Level 1 to Level 3.
Costa Rica was downgraded from Level 3 to "Level 2: Moderate" risk, which the CDC identifies as having reported 50 to 99 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days.
Nigeria and Zambia were upgraded to Level 2 from Level 1 and Madagascar received the designation after having previously been ranked "Unknown."
Niger was downgraded from Level 4 to "Level 1: Low" indicating fewer than 50 new cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days, while the Philippines dropped from Level 2.