All mainland regions considered to be at high risk

All regions of mainland Portugal on Thursday were considered at high risk on the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) maps, which aim to assist travel decisions due to the worsening of the Covid-19 pandemic.

After several months in ‘orange’ – and without ever going ‘green’ like many European Union (EU) countries – mainland Portugal today moved into ‘red’ (high risk) on the ECDC’s maps of combined indicators, covering case notification rates in the past 14 days, number of tests performed and total positives, which are updated weekly on Thursday.

The ‘red’ category means that the cumulative 14-day case notification rate ranges from 75 to 200 per 100,000 population or greater than 200 and less than 500 per 100,000 population. The test positivity rate is 4% or more.

The Azores and Madeira are the only regions of Portugal that are not in the ‘red’, with the Azores archipelago in the ‘orange’ – referring to territories where the rate of notification of new infections is between 50 and 75 per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days or between 75 and 200 per 100,000 inhabitants and the rate of positivity of the tests is 1% or 4% or more, respectively – and Madeira is the only region in the ‘green’ (less than 50 new cases and a positivity rate of less than 4%, or less than 75 cases but with a positivity rate of less than 1%).

Last February, and due to the high numbers of infections, Portugal was even in the ‘dark red’ category of the ECDC maps, used for areas where the virus is circulating at very high levels.

These maps follow a traffic lights system on the spread of Covid-19 in the EU, starting in green (favourable situation), passing through orange, red and dark red (very dangerous situation), and serve to assist member states on the restrictions to be applied to travel in the EU space, which means that those travelling from Portugal may be subject to testing and quarantine on arrival in other European countries, this is always a national decision.

Thursday’s update in the middle of the tourist season comes after Germany earlier this month classified Portugal as an area of ‘variant concern’, notably due to the spread of the Delta strain. France on Wednesday advised against non-essential travel to Portugal and Spain.

Only Cyprus is in ‘dark red’ on Thursday’s updated EU map, but virtually all of Spain is now also in ‘red’, except Galicia and Castilla La Mancha.

In mid-June, the Council of the EU adopted a recommendation for a coordinated approach to travel, proposing that vaccinated and recovered Covid-19 not be subject to restrictive measures such as quarantines or testing.