The visual, that will be updated on a weekly basis, is supposed to offer a structured overview of the current situation across the EU, showcasing risk levels determined by the rate of positive tests as well as the number of coronavirus infections per 100,00 inhabitants. 

Tuesday’s map produced ECDC pictured an alarming yet unsurprising mosaic of orange and red countries, indicating medium to high risk levels respectively.

As expected, Luxembourg, its neighbours France and Belgium as well as the Netherlands, Spain, the majority of Portugal and the UK are coloured red. This indicates that they either recorded 50 or more infections per 100,000 inhabitants within the past 14-days with a positive test rate of 4% or above, or that they surpassed 150 infections per 100,000 inhabitants in a 14-day period. The situation looks equally concerning in Eastern Europe, with most countries also depicted in red. 

Amongst those countries who have not provided enough data to assess the risk level, and subsequently coloured grey, are Germany, Austria, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland. 

The Baltic states on the other hand, as well as the majority of Italy and some of the Greek islands are orange, indicating medium risk, whereas only Norway and Finland are considered primarily low risk with most regions dressed in green. 

An updated map will be published every Thursday by the ECDC, and while this does allow for a clearer overview of the situation it does not reflect standardised quarantine rules across countries as each member state is still free to impose its own measures.