COVID19: Cyprus stays in Europe’s dark red zone

The latest COVID-19 map issued by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) shows Europe mostly high-risk dark red, with Cyprus remaining in that zone for a second week running.

A rise in cases in Cyprus has kept the island in the dark red zone on the COVID-19 epidemiological risk map compiled by the ECDC issued on Thursday.

The weekly map published by the ECDC focuses on the cumulative diagnosis rate for COVID-19 infections over the past two weeks.

When the cumulative rate of a country exceeds 500, then it is marked “dark red”, which is the highest-risk zone on the map.

Red zone areas are where the 14-day cumulative COVID-19 case notification rate ranges from 75 to 200, and the test positivity rate is 4% or more, or the case rate is over 200 but less than 500.

According to the island’s health authorities, latest report, the country had a 14-day cumulative diagnosis of 752.8 per 100,000 residents during the fortnight between 23 November – 6 December.

Since then, Cyprus has been reporting daily cases of well over 500, except for weekends when fewer tests are conducted.

Cyprus, however, ranks amongst the highest in the bloc regarding tests carried out per 100,000 people.

It is accorded dark green status as it carries out over 5,000 tests per 100,000.

When it comes to test positivity rates, Cyprus is one of the select few in the green category, reporting rates below 1%.

On Thursday, Cyprus reported another 635 new COVID-19 cases, with a positivity rate of 0.72% from 87,780 tests carried out.

Total COVID cases detected on the island reached 139,368 and 607 deaths.

Cyprus is joined in the dark red zone by most EU member states.

Greece, Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, Austria, Liechtenstein, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, the Republic of Ireland, Iceland, Denmark, and most of Germany are in the highest-risk zone on the ECDC map.