The east of Limburg Province is coloured dark red on the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control’s new epidemic map, whose criteria were validated by member States on Friday.
Dark red is reserved for areas worst hit by the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). It means the area has had an incidence of more than 500 cases per 100,000 inhabitants for 14 days, in this case the second and third weeks of January.
For these high-risk zones, testing and quarantining should apply, even for essential travel, according to recommendations adopted by the member States.
Member States are supposed to guarantee the coherence of the recommendations, not only for cross-border travel, but also for movement within their national territory, where the incidence of COVID-19 can differ significantly from one area to the next.
The rest of Belgium is coloured reddish-orange, indicating an incidence of 150 to 500 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
About 15 countries in Europe have areas coded dark red on the latest ECDC map. The worst affected are Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Lithuania.
The Brussels Times
