EU agency flags country as high Covid risk for travellers
The ECDC map combines the reporting rates of Covid-19 cases in the past 14 days, the number of tests performed and the total number of positives and is updated weekly on Thursday.
Mainland Portugal and the Azores were on Thursday placed in the high-risk category for Covid-19 on the map of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), which supports travel decisions in the European Union, along with Madeira.
Last week Madeira was moved back from orange to red on this map (which follows a traffic light system). On Thursday, mainland Portugal and the Azores also saw their classification downgraded to red, meaning the high risk for the spread of the pandemic.
The red category means that, in these European regions, the cumulative rate of reporting of cases of infection in the past 14 days ranges from 75 to 200 per 100,000 inhabitants or is higher than 200 and lower than 500 per 100,000 inhabitants, and the test positivity rate is 4% or higher.
The ECDC map combines the reporting rates of Covid-19 cases in the past 14 days, the number of tests performed and the total number of positives and is updated weekly on Thursday.
In Thursday’s update, virtually all of Europe is covered in red and dark red, on the day it surpassed 1.5 million Covid-19-associated deaths and when several countries on the continent are reinstating restrictions to try to curb record contaminations.
This map from the European agency follows a traffic light system on the spread of Covid-19 in the EU, starting from green (favourable situation) through orange, red and dark red (very dangerous situation).
It serves as an aid to member states on what restrictions to apply to travel within the EU.
Last February, and due to the high number of infections with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which causes the Covid-19 disease, Portugal was even in the dark red category of the ECDC maps, used for areas where the virus circulates at very high levels.
In mid-June, the Council of the EU adopted a recommendation for a coordinated approach to travel, proposing that vaccinated and recovered Covid-19 patients should not be subjected to restrictive measures such as quarantines or testing.
