In accordance with Recommendation 2020/1475 on a coordinated approach to the restriction of free movement in response to the pandemic, on 5, 12 and 19 August 2021 the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) published the maps of the current coronavirus situation in the Member States as well as in Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

According to Recommendation 2020/1475, areas are marked in 4 different colours (green, orange, red and dark red) depending on their 14-day notification rate and test positivity rate. Over the past three weeks, Europe faced a continuously developing situation, especially with regard to Spain and Germany. More particularly, while on 5 August Germany was completely green, on 19 August is mainly yellow, with a few regions in red. On the other hand, while the pandemic impact was pretty bad in Spain until 12 August, with most regions in dark red, on 19 August the majority of the Spanish territory has gone into red, meaning that, despite it is still unsafe to travel to Spain due to the infection rates, it is safer than the previous week. 

The situation looks quite stable in other States such France and Italy, even though, however, the number of cases and deaths rose overall in Europe. A scenario which seems likely to continue in the following weeks, with stable trends in cases and increasing trends in deaths forecast and, therefore, the possibility of new restrictions to free movement.

Marco Stillo