After months of data gathering and a three-month international review period, the U.S. State Department issued not a single Y2K-related travel warning to U.S. citizens on Tuesday.
While the State Department made much-anticipated updates to its consular information sheets to include country-specific Y2K information, the agency assiduously avoided making any country or regional comparisons or analysis during a press conference Tuesday. The State Department said it updated the information "in the interest of protecting U.S. citizens" and did not intend to "impede travel or hinder tourism."
A British report released today, by contrast, warned its citizens not to travel to the Ukraine because of Y2K readiness questions, but State Department spokesman John O'Keefe said the U.S. did not come to the same conclusions.
O'Keefe said that the government cannot predict with certainty what will happen in these countries and stressed that the information sheets were "just one tool in the decision making process" for U.S. citizens traveling abroad.
The Y2K information on mission critical systems, assembled after months of collecting information from U.S. embassies and private sector surveys, was added to the information sheets that the Department maintains on 196 countries. The data-covering Y2K systems involved in health care, water, communications and other infrastructure systems-has been in the government's hands since June, but countries were permitted to examine the data before they were posted to the Internet.
O'Keefe said there has been an upward trend in the past few months in Y2K remediation in many countries, and the State Department didn't want to release information early and possibly create panic. If it becomes necessary in the next three months to issue a travel warning the State Department said it wouldn't hesitate to do so.
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