ECDC issues travel warning for Greek islands over COVID-19

The European Center for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC) has ranked 13 Greek Aegean islands among the areas with the highest risk of coronavirus infection. Reuters reported. ECDC thus strongly warns against traveling to these areas. Among the islands marked in dark red on the ECDC map are popular tourist destinations such as Santorini, Mykonos, and Rhodes. One week ago, the office shifted the largest Greek island of Crete to a dark red level.

ECDC rates European regions on a four-point scale from green, which has the lowest risk of infection, to dark red. It currently includes Cyprus, the Netherlands, much of Spain, and Corsica. The assessment is based, for example, on the number of new cases of coronavirus infection in the last 14 days per 100,000 population. The assessment is published by ECDC every Thursday.

ECDC assessments are used by European Union countries when setting their own rules for travel and return from individual countries and regions. This also applies in part to the Czech Republic, which has the Netherlands, Britain, Spain and Cyprus marked in dark red on its travel map. Greece is in the red, indicating a medium risk of infection.