Brussels, Aug 6 (IANS): The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has said that the resurgence of the Covid-19 pandemic in the continent could be linked to the opening of borders and the relaxation of travel restrictions.

The travel card issued by ECDC on Thursday was not very encouraging. Europe is now redder than it was a week ago. The south of the continent, where many tourists meet, appears to be the area most affected by the pandemic, reports Xinhua news agency.

In the south, France, Greece and Italy have seen new orange and red zones multiply in their territories.

In the Italian peninsula, everything was orange except for the islands -- Sicily and Sardinia, but now Tuscany and Marche have also turned red.

This week, the north also started to turn red, as in the cases of Estonia and Iceland.

In Finland, Helsinki is one of several areas that turn red.

According to the Finnish National Broadcaster Yle, with the accelerated spread of the Delta variant, the three most populous regions including the capital Helsinki have been assessed to entering the accelerating spreading epidemic stage from Wednesday. This is the most serious stage according to the current epidemic classification criteria implemented in the Nordic country.

Hans Kluge, regional director of WHO Europe, said last last month that the continent was witnessing a significant rise in cases associated with the spread of the Delta variant, that has become the most dominant strain across the continent.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the ECDC on Wednesday issued a joint statement to stress that full COVID-19 vaccination is key to protecting against the Delta variant.

They strongly encouraged those who are eligible for vaccination but have not yet been vaccinated to take the recommended vaccination "in a timely manner".