17 November 2020
European countries have adopted a common colour-coded ‘traffic light’ approach to COVID-19 restrictions to help necessary travel, including by air.
The new traffic light travel system applies to the European Union area and the UK.
Within this system, regions are categorised as green, orange, red, or grey based on the risk levels of COVID-19 within that area.
Categorisations are determined by the rate of new infections, or incidence, per 100,000 people in the previous 14 days. The rate of positive COVID-19 tests decides the colour.
Green is for regions reporting less than 25 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants with test positivity under 4%.
Orange is for regions reporting less than 50 new infections, and test positivity is over 4% or the incidence is between 25 and 150 and test positivity under 4%.
Red is for regions with more than 50 new infections per 100,000 incidents, and test positivity is over 4% or the incidence is over 150 per 100,000 over the last 14 days.
Grey indicated the regions for which there is insufficient data.
A map showing displaying the colour allocated to each area is published each week by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). The site already offers an overview of the travel regulations for each of the EU’s 27 member states.
