As many European countries have already opened their borders to travelers in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has called for travel to some countries and regions, while encouraging travel to others.
Such a mixed call came from ECDC after the situation with COVID-19 was stable in most EU countries, while several others were still suffering from the disease.
According to the latest ECDC data, the number of countries to which you can travel safely has increased. This means that travelers are no longer prohibited from visiting the following countries and regions included in the green list:
- Germany
- Poland
- Czech Republic
- Slovakia
- Austria
- Hungary
- Slovenia
- Romania
- Bulgaria
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- regions of Norway
- regions of Croatia
- regions of Italy
The above countries and regions were placed on the green list on August 5 after they registered a test positive level of less than one percent and detected less than 75 cases of COVID-19 infection per 100,000 population in the last 14 days.
On the contrary, the ECDC strongly discourages travel to all countries / regions listed in the dark red list, as the likelihood of contracting the disease in these regions is extremely high.
Last week, the ECDC warned against traveling to popular Greek islands such as Mykonos, Santorini, Paros, Samos and Naxos, after the islands were placed in the dark red category.
For the same reasons, ECDC does not approve trips to Spain, as well as to three islands in the country: Ibiza, Palma and Menorca.
With the exception of the countries and islands mentioned above, the three regions of France also belong to the dark red category, which means that a trip to the country is recommended only for basic purposes.
The western and north-western regions of Ireland also belong to the category of dark red countries.
In addition, ECDC has listed countries that have registered fewer than 200 COVID-19 cases in the last 14 days. As with the dark red list, travel to any of the countries on the red list is highly discouraged.
According to the data provided by ECDC, the following countries / regions are on the red list:
- Estonia
- Malta
- Portugal
- Iceland
- regions of Ireland
- regions of France
- regions of Sweden
- regions of Finland
On the other hand, the countries / regions listed below are part of the yellow list:
- Sweden
- Finland
- Lithuania
- regions of France
- regions of Italy
- regions of Denmark
- regions of Croatia
- region of Austria
Travel to any of these countries and regions is not as strongly recommended as to the categories of dark red and red, because those included in the yellow list have a lower level of infection.