“We decided to introduce the term“ dark red ”zones, foci with a particularly high spread of the virus, in respect of which targeted measures to restrict movements can be introduced in order to prevent the complete closure of borders,” the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, quoted TASS as saying.

She acknowledged that the European Union is currently an almost completely "red" epidemiological zone.

“The decision on the dark red zones was made to move away from the categories of nation states and border restrictions.

The EU states, whose regions will find themselves in such a zone, should jointly develop epidemiological measures for the entire “dark red” region, not dividing along borders, ”she added.

Also, von der Leyen said that in a few months the European Union will have more doses of the coronavirus vaccine than it needs, so the European Commission is ready to propose a mechanism for transferring some of the vaccines to third countries.