The epidemiological situation regarding the spread of COVID-19 has shown moderate improvement in Romania and Poland, according to the latest map issued by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) on Thursday.
However the situation remains serious in the great majority of regions in EU and EEA countries. Cyprus is one of these countries, being recorded for yet another week as being in the deep red category.
The ECDC map does not record the number of deaths or hospitalisation, nor the levels of vaccination, but only the number of new cases per 100 thousand people over the past 14 days. The map also does not account for the number of cases caused by the Omicron variant.
The most noteworthy improvement appears to have taken place in Romania, whose southern region is the second to switch from the orange to the green category after its south western region. The capital Bucharest however remains in the red zone.
Most regions in Poland have switched from the deep red into the red category. There has also been a comparable small improvement in the situation in western Germany and Hungary.
Most of Austria, most of Norway and the entirety of Bulgaria remain in the red category.
The epidemiological situation has nonetheless worsened in Thrace in Greece, Finland and southern Italy, resulting in all three countries being in the deep red category (with the exception of Sardinia). Latvia also switched once from the red to the deep red category.
For yet another week these countries are also in the deep red category: Estonia, Lithuania, Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, Slovenia, Croatia, Malta and Liechtenstein.
Orange zone areas are defined as the areas where the 14-day cumulative COVID-19 case notification rate is below 50 and the test positivity rate of tests for COVID-19 infection is 4% or more, or the 14-day cumulative COVID-19 case notification rate is between 50 and 75 and the test positivity rate is 1% or more, or the 14-day cumulative COVID-19 case notification rate is between 75 and 200 and the test positivity rate is lower than 4%.
Red zone areas are defined as the areas where the 14-day cumulative COVID-19 case notification rate ranges from 75 to 200 and the test positivity rate of tests for COVID-19 infection is 4% or more, or the 14-day cumulative COVID-19 case notification rate is more than 200 but less than 500 (when the cumulative rate exceeds 500 the area enters the “deep red” zone).
ECDC publishes relevant maps and data every Thursday, in support of the Council recommendation on a coordinated approach to the restriction of free movement in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The maps are based on data reported by the Member States to the European Surveillance System (TESSy) by midnight on Tuesday.
