The digital health certificate, designed to make travel easier, is now in force across the EU.
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B.In March the European Commission proposed that member states issue digital health certificates to EU citizens who have been vaccinated for COVID-19, have tested negative for the virus or have recovered from it, which would allow them to travel freely through the 27-nation bloc.
On June 1st the Digital COVID certificate from the EU, as it is called, went live when seven European countries joined the platform: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece and Poland. But since July 1st, the technology has been rolled out across the EU and is now recognized by all Member States who make it available to citizens and residents.
“This should allow everyone in Europe to travel safely and freely this summer,” said EU Commission spokesman Christian Wigand. And in a block of 450 million citizens, he said that “more than 200 million certificates” [already] has been generated. “
A regularly updated list of the countries that issue the certificates as well as additional information on how the certificates work can be found on the Website of the EU digital COVID certificate.
“EU citizens look forward to traveling again and they want to do so safely. An EU certificate is a crucial step on this path, ”said Stella Kyriakides, EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety.
How does the EU digital COVID certificate work?
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The EU COVID digital certificate is free and available to everyone – it is available in both digital and paper formats and provides a secure and verified QR code for those who have proof of vaccination, recovery from COVID-19 or a negative COVID-19 test result.
The European Union uses a cloud-based system that has been set up by technology providers T-Systems and SAP and hosted in the data center of the European Commission in Luxembourg. It enables platform users to check the digital information contained in the QR codes of the certificates while protecting personal data. The QR codes and the information they contain will be accessible through apps that will be set up by each individual country.
Can Americans Get an EU Digital Travel Certificate?
While the digital health certificates will make it easier to travel within Europe, there is very little information on how and if they would facilitate travel from outside Europe or travel between European countries by non-citizens and non-residents as they are used for work in countries that are tapped into the same network that currently only includes countries in Europe.
The introduction of the EU COVID digital certificate, essentially a vaccine or health passport, is in stark contrast to the approach in the United States, where the Biden government has recognized that the need for some kind of secure documentation will make it available to citizens allowing them to provide evidence is increasing their vaccination status – but it has also said the federal government won’t be the one to provide it.
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Excluding government issued digital health passports In the USA, vaccinated US citizens only have to show their CDC-issued vaccination card in paper form as proof of vaccination and a patchwork of digital COVID passports developed by the private sector. These include the IBM Digital Health Pass, the CommonPass, Clear and the IATA Travel Pass of the International Air Transport Association. But none of these are widespread yet.
This story was originally published June 1, 2021 and has been updated with current information. Associated Press contributed to the coverage.
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