Digital COVID Certificate Introduced in Europe

The European Union has introduced the Uniform Digital Covid Certificate. It was launched today, Thursday (July 1). While this system promises to remove travel barriers, it does not eliminate many of the problems at work.

The Coronavirus pandemic has eased the uncertainty of the past year and a half and introduced the single Covid certificate to facilitate travel within the European Union (EU) from 1 July. As a result, the opportunity to travel freely between member countries should be opened by showing the QR code digitally on paper or on a smartphone.

The certificate can be used if a person has received all doses of the vaccine approved in the EU, if he/she has recently had a negative Covid-19 test result, or if a person has proof of Covid-19 recovery. According to EU law, showing this certificate will no longer require quarantine or a new Covid-19 test when traveling to member countries. The certificate is also being implemented in Shenzhen countries such as Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

Although the opportunity to travel freely on paper has been created, the proliferation of the extremely contagious Delta variant of the Coronavirus is in fact creating one obstacle after another in the way of travel within Europe. As a result, tourists have to be careful even during the summer holidays.

Countries like Germany have begun to make full use of the "emergency brake" that has been included in EU law as a tool to deal with emergencies. A 14-day quarantine has been made compulsory to enter Germany from Portugal to avoid delta infection. Although the EU has expressed frustration with Germany's decision, member states have the right to ban travel to the workplace.

Concerns are also growing in Europe over the growing outbreak of the Delta variant in Britain. Despite the fact that the infection rate in that country is almost seven times higher than in Europe, the countries of southern Europe are under pressure due to the free entry of tourists from there. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has criticized the lack of control over British tourists in all these countries.

Despite the benefits of vaccine certificates within the European Union and the opportunity to travel from ‘safe’ countries outside Europe, the aviation and tourism industry fears anarchy at airports due to differences in the rules of member countries. Moreover, the impact of digital certification on tourism is expected to be limited this year as the number of people receiving all doses of vaccine are still low enough.

Meanwhile, the European Union on Wednesday (June 30) listed 11 countries, including Canada, as 'safe'. In other words, the rules for traveling to Europe from all these countries are being relaxed a lot. Some member countries may claim the Negative Covid test as a condition of entry from all these countries.