The St. Thomas Travel Risk Advisory Committee lifted its review process April 11 for countries that are rated at risk levels of one or two out of a scale of 1-4 per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Department of State standards, opening the door for pre-pandemic risk assessment for students studying abroad.
Risk assessment is used by the CDC and the Department of State to assess the safety to danger spectrum of traveling abroad. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of State assessed risk based on activities such as crime, terrorism or natural disasters, while the CDC assessed risk based on the threat of illnesses or diseases. However, the pandemic caused those two organizations to combine their risk assessments.
“During COVID, they commingled so that their ratings were the same to prevent confusion,” said Tim Lewis, associate vice provost of global learning and strategy. “So, you might have a country listed as a level four for the Department of State because of the CDC COVID four.”
The peak of the pandemic caused almost every country to be assessed at risk levels of three or four, but with the pandemic easing up, countries are falling back to risk levels of one or two.
“Right now, there are 20 countries that are CDC one or two and Department of State one or two,” Lewis said. “At least now, for those few countries, you don’t need TRAC review.”
The review process from St. Thomas’ Travel Risk Advisory Committee is for students studying abroad but requires little work from the students themselves.
“For approved study abroad programs located in countries that require review by the Travel Risk Advisory Committee, the Office of Study Abroad will submit program information to TRAC on the student’s behalf,” Director of Study Abroad Sarah Huesing said. “Students do not need to submit information individually for their study abroad program.”
The TRAC held these reviews to keep students safe while traveling but also to keep other people safe in other countries.
“When (COVID) was really bad and Minnesota was worse than much of the world, we worried that you would bring COVID from Minnesota to another country,” Lewis said. “That’s a pretty big moral responsibility.”
While this update will ease up the review process, travel for students will hardly change since almost all students were able to travel abroad during the 2021-22 school year, despite risk levels of three or four.
“The outcome is that TRAC now includes CDC health notice levels in its official review process but is reverting to a pre-pandemic process for U.S. Department of State travel advisory levels,” Huesing said. “This means St. Thomas study abroad students will be minimally impacted since the various changes ensure the same level of risk mitigation is occurring as previously.”
Ben Hogan can be reached at hoga1306@stthomas.edu.