After months, Malta is now back on the EU’s red travel list after a spike in cases was registered in recent weeks. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) issues a weekly map classifying countries based on the number of positive cases and rate detected in the previous week.

Malta was listed red in the latest map after the notification rate spiked to 122 and positivity rate ranked at 4.08. A country is marked as red on the travel list if the notification rate is anywhere between 75 and 200 and if the positivity rate is above four.

Countries with the best rate are marked as green, followed by orange and then red. Badly hit countries are further classified as dark red.

While this list doesn’t have automatic consequences for categorized countries, it is there to provide travellers with information regarding their destinations and the risk levels. Previously, the European Commission has advised against travel to and from red-listed countries.

Since the data used is from 5^th July to 11^th July, the classification is delayed by a week. However, it is unlikely that the country will make it off the red list in the coming weeks considering the high number of daily cases being registered.

Until yesterday, 18^th July, Malta had a total of 1,832 active cases after 195 new cases were registered. There are currently 18 patients being treated in hospital, one of whom is in the ITU.