ARCHIVED - EU extends Covid passports for another year
The scheme will remain in place in case the coronavirus pandemic rebounds
With most of Europe bracing itself for a troublesome seventh coronavirus wave, the Council of the EU came to the decision on Tuesday June 28 to extend the validity of the European Union’s Digital Covid Certificate scheme.
The Council pointed out that Covid passports greatly contributed to reigniting international travel as pandemic data improved globally and to stay on the safe side, the documents will remain valid in case there is another rebound in the health crisis.
“The regulation establishing the EU digital COVID certificate will be prolonged by one year, until June 30 2023. The extension of the regulation will ensure that EU travellers, as well as those from third countries connected to the system, can continue to use their EU digital COVID certificate for travel within the Union in the Member States where these certificates are required,” the Council noted in a press release regarding the decision.
If the pandemic situation improves, the EU Council retains the option of scrapping Covid passports and the European Commission has been asked to formally review the scheme by December 31 this year.
A series of amendments have also been made to the Covid certificates:
- From now on, Covid passports will detail all vaccinations the holder has received to date, regardless of the country they were administered
- People who have tested positive through an antigen test, rather than a PCR, will be issued with a Covid Recovery Cert and the list of approved tests will be expanded
- Covid passports will now be issued to people taking part in clinical trials in order to encourage continued research into coronavirus vaccines.
The EU first adopted the Digital Covid Certificate in July 2021 but most member states no longer require them for travel; as of June 2 this year, Spain no longer requires EU passengers to present the document.
Image: Archive
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