Overview
On
March 19, the U.S. Department of State issued a Global
Level 4 Health Advisory because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Advisory
urged U.S. citizens to avoid all international travel and, in countries where
commercial departure options remained available, recommended an immediate
return to the United States or preparation to remain abroad for an indefinite
period. On August 6, the Department rescinded the Global Level 4 Health
Advisory, reverting to individual Travel Advisory levels based on local travel
conditions, and adding portions to each based on the COVID situation at the
local level.
The Global Health Advisory
On
March 11, the Director-General of the World Health Organization declared
a pandemic of COVID-19, a disease caused by the novel coronavirus first
found in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The declaration came as worldwide case
number topped 100,000 in over 100 countries. The number topped
14,000 in the United States alone on March 19, and it became clear that
international travel was becoming increasingly untenable, with border closures
and airline cancellations mounting. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control &
Prevention (CDC) issued a Level 3 Travel Health Notice, indicating widespread
ongoing transmission of the virus, and the Department of State followed suit,
issuing a Global Level 4 Health Advisory.
This
is the first time the Department has issued a Travel Advisory to supersede
individual country levels. The Travel Advisory system has been in place since
January 2019, when the Department first assigned specific levels of risk to
each location around the world—usually based on a country, but occasionally on
a portion of thereof. Among other risk factors contributing to that risk level
is health risk. All travel advisories at or above a level 2 must have a reason
for being so; the Department calls this reason an “indicator.” For the first
year of the system’s operation, that health risk factor (known as the “H
Indicator”) brought traveler attention to locations where there were heightened
risk of diseases, poor medical infrastructure, and other health concerns. The H
Indicator was the less common of the indicators the Department used to
determine risk level—far less common, for instance, than the C (Crime) or T
(Terrorism) Indicators.
At
first, when the novel coronavirus was only found in China, the Department used
the Advisory system as it had originally been developed, adding an H Indicator
and language about the virus only to the China Travel Advisory for the first
time on January
27. That initial report raised the Travel Advisory level for China from 2
to 3, and to 4 for Hubei Province, home to Wuhan. Within three days, however,
the Department raised China’s level nationwide to 4, indicating travelers
should not go to China and should leave the country if possible, due to
health-security issues. Over the next six weeks, the Department issued similar
Level 4 guidance based on the “H Indicator” for Iran
on February 26, and Mongolia
on March 18. Iran’s health-security issue was the spread of the disease,
while Mongolia’s was based a lack of departure options for U.S. travelers
in-country. By March 19, it became clear the Mongolia was not the outlier for
transportation issues, and the Department issued the Global Health Advisory,
superseding every other Travel Advisory Level.
Back to Normal?
Between
March 19 and August 6, the Global Level 4 Health Advisory superseded all other
State Department Travel Advisories, effectively adding an “H Indicator” to
every country’s advisory and bumping each to a Level 4. Once the CDC removed
its blanket Level 3 Travel Health Notice, the Department viewed it as a prudent
time to remove its blanked Level 4 Advisory and revert to individual, locally
based Advisories once again. Travelers will see the Global Health Advisory no
longer appears on the Department’s travel
website, though there is still a tab
for COVID-related travel issues, both on that site and on each U.S. Embassy website around the world. But
they will also see additional COVID-related language inserted in each Advisory,
reflecting conditions in country. The advisories will contain one of the
following four sentences to reflect those conditions:
- Travelers
to [Country] may experience border closures, airport closures, travel
prohibitions, stay at home orders, business closures, and other emergency
conditions within [country] due to COVID-19.
- [Country]
has lifted stay at home orders, and resumed some transportation options, and
businesses operations.
- [Country]
has resumed most transportation options, (including airport operations and
re-opening of borders) and business operations (including day cares and
schools). Other improved conditions have been reported within [country].
- [Country]
is no longer impacted by restrictions due to COVID-19.
Private-sector
security managers should continue to consider the totality of the situation in
any location—including organizational risk tolerance, footprint, and
capabilities—rather than relying solely on any one assessment such as a Travel
Advisory or Diplomacy Strong level. Security managers can also note that all of
the State Department ratings reflected in the 2020
OSAC Crime & Safety Reports for Crime, Terrorism, and Political
Violence remain unchanged as of the date of this report’s publication.
Further Information
For
further information on the Travel Advisory system or for an update on the
security situation anywhere in the world, contact OSAC’s Research & Analysis Unit
and consider the following resources:
