THE US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has tagged the Philippines as one of the areas in the world that are considered “high risk” for coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

The Philippines joined Russia and Nepal, along with several other countries, in the list of travel destinations under “high risk” category or Level 3.

The CDC updated the status of the Philippines, Russia and Nepal on Monday, August 15, 2022.

In its website, the CDC advised travelers who are planning to go to areas under Level 3 to make sure that they are vaccinated against Covid-19.

“If you have a weakened immune system or are more likely to get very sick from Covid-19, even if you are up to date with your Covid-19 vaccines, talk with your clinician about your risk and consider delaying travel to this destination,” CDC said.

The term “up to date” means that the traveler has not only received the primary series of Covid-19 vaccines, but also the booster shots.

As of August 16, 130 of the about 235 places monitored by CDC have been placed under the “high risk” group.

Level 3 is used to tag areas that have had more than 100 Covid-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days.

Level 4 is the highest category. Tourists are advised not to travel to areas placed under this group. It has been reserved for “special circumstances” only, such as “rapidly escalating case trajectory or extremely high case counts, emergence of a new variant of concern, and healthcare infrastructure collapse.”

As of August 16, no destinations have been placed at this level so far.

Level 2 is considered “moderate,” and Level 1 is “low” risk for Covid-19.

CDC said Levels 3, 2 and 1 will still be primarily determined by 28-day incidence or case counts.

The Philippines, as of August 15, had a total of 3,835,422 Covid-19 cases, of which 38,982 have remained active, while 61,078 have died and 3,735,362 have recovered from the disease.

The Department of Health (DOH) announced on Monday that the country logged 28,008 new cases in the past seven days (August 8 to 14).

This is three percent higher than the cases logged from August 1 to 7, said the health agency.

The daily average cases stood at 4,001.

Of the new cases, the DOH said 101 have been considered critical, while 229 more deaths have been added to the list.

The healthcare utilization rate in the country has remained low, with 28 percent intensive care unit (ICU) bed utilization (719 out of 2,571 ICU beds) and 30.9 percent for non-ICU bed utilization (6,781 out of 21,969).

Severe and critical admissions stood at 822, or 9.6 percent of Covid-19 admissions in the country, said the DOH.