The EU-wide travel pass, aiming to facilitate movement across the bloc during the coronavirus pandemic, officially comes into force on Thursday, July 1, 2021..
The Digital Covid Certificate — or Digital Green Certificate — is to be used as proof that travellers have been vaccinated against Covid-19, received a negative test result, or recovered from the disease.
Its aim is to enable people to travel more easily for work and travel in the EU by reducing paperwork and skipping quarantine.
The certificate is a temporary tool. Its use will be suspended when the World Health Organization (WHO) declares an end to the international health emergency caused by Covid-19.
The document — available in either digital or paper form — will include information about vaccination, tests and recovery from the disease. EU citizens will be able to obtain the pass if they have, at least, one of the three elements. Both PCR tests and antigen tests will be admitted.
The “EU Digital COVID certificate (EUDCC)“, as it is officially known, is free and should be recognised by all 27 EU countries as well as Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Iceland and Norway.
The EU is in talks with several other countries, such as the United Kingdom and the United States, over mutual recognition and operation of COVID-related documents.
According to the European Commission, all member states should be in a position on Thursday to issue and accept the pass — apart from Ireland, which could be late in doing so because of cyberattacks.
By Wednesday evening, 21 EU nations were already connected to the system’s network and the six others were technically ready. Some countries already began using the new health certificate in June.
A gradual implementation period is foreseen, with a grace period running until August 12 for countries not ready on July 1. During this period, other states should accept national documents on condition they contain data required at European level.
Countries are obliged to accept vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA): Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson&Johnson.
They can also — though this is not compulsory — also admit people inoculated with vaccines authorised in some EU countries, such as the Russian Sputnik V in Hungary, or with products approved by the World Health Organisation.
The launch of the Digital Pass comes under the cloud of the Delta variant and EU countries, still divided over travel policy, are enforcing their own policies. The airline industry has warned of chaos at airports in the summer unless there is better coordination. – via euronews
‘Apartheid’ – Europe style – here we come!! Reminds me how Black South Africans could only circulate within their city centres only if they held their ‘pass’. History forever repeating itself – yawn…
So why is the Greek government denying all residents with temporary AMKAs beginning with 90 access to the EU Digital Covid Travel Pass? Why don’t they fix their broken computer system so that these AMKA numbers can be recognised? Vaccinated but cannot prove it.
how can AMKA start with <90> when it starts with birth date 00-00-00?
Actually my AMKA starts with a 9 followed by my six digit birthdate. So for me it starts with 90, as I am born on day 03.
I don’t know for certain but is it possible that (some?) temporary AMKAs had an initial 9 in order to distinguish them from normal AMKAs? The government only wants them to be used to access vaccination, not other medical services.
Also people tend to make statements as though the situation is universal. I know people who have not yet managed to get a temporary AMKA BUT I also know people who did get temporary AMKAs and received the vaccine. It seems to be easier for people with no residency status and no AFM than people who do have residency status and an AFM.