On Truth Behind Travel Podcast Episode 28 – back in April 2021 – we talked about The Digital Green Certificate and the IATA Travel Pass. Today, the digital green certificate comes back approved and re-branded as EU Digital Covid Certificate. Mind you – not passport – Certificate.

In Episode 34, we pick up where we left the conversation on vaccine passports and explored in-depth all we need to know about the EU Digital Covid Certificate

What does that mean?

EU Digital COVID Certificate is digital proof that a person has either:

• been vaccinated against COVID-19
• received a negative test result
• recovered from COVID-19

What is digital proof? The Certificate comes as a QR code in digital or paper format, The digital version can be stored on a mobile device but you can also request a paper format if you want it, it is free of charge and available in your own national language and English. It’s valid across the EU countries.

Tons of questions have started to pour in since the announcement this week:

• Do I need one?
• How can I get one?
• I am not vaccinated, what happens?

The EU Digital COVID Certificate is not a pre-condition to free movement, but rather the end product of a regulatory system that coordinates travel restrictions across Europe. This means that European Member States may or may not impose further travel restrictions on individuals entering their countries – even if they have an EU Digital COVID Certificate.

What are the technicalities involved in having an EU Digital COVID Certificate?

An authorized or shall I say better – recognized – facility such as a hospital, testing center or health authorities are able to issue the EU Digital COVID Certificate based on one of these three conditions:

• the person is vaccinated
• A person has tested negative for Covid-19
• the person has recovered from Covid-19

Sounds easy, but there’s more to know:

• for vaccinated individuals, all traveling restrictions are lifted only if a person has received one of the EU-wide Marketed and Approved Vaccines (namely Pfizer/BioNTech, AstraZeneca/Oxford University, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson.) other vaccine certificates are at the discretion of the state members for them to allow them in or not.

Also – the Certificate is issued to any person who received a COVID-19 vaccination in an EU Member State, irrespective of the number of doses.

• for tested individuals, the results are only valid 72 hours for PCR tests and, where accepted by a Member State, 48 hours for rapid antigen tests. Self-tests are not recognized by the EU Digital COVID Certificate
• for recovered individuals, the maximum validity period of the certificate of recovery at 180 days after you’ve had Covid-19

Download the certificate factsheet here

So, let’s say you are one of these three individuals and you want to travel, how does it work?

Pending you fall into one of these three conditions, the EU Digital COVID Certificate is issued. It contains a QR code with a digital signature that identifies the institution/lab/hospital that has produced the Certificate and guarantees its authenticity. So it’s not your digital signature. It is the digital signature of the institution/lab/hospital where you are getting the Certificate from.

The QR code on the certificate is checked or scanned and the signature is verified when you travel. This would ideally mean that you can then enter your EU country of choice without being affected by further travel restrictions. For example quarantine, self-isolation, or further testing. I say ideally because while this is the recommended procedure. In the end, each country member of the European Union has the final call on the entry procedures. Basically on who comes from where and does what.

So technically, your data is not cross-stored but the digital signatures yes, and the gateway that allows verifying the digital signatures contained in the QR codes of all certificates have been built and set up by T-Systems T-Systems (a German global IT services and consulting company headquartered in Frankfurt) and SAP (System Analysis Program Development) and is hosted at the Commission’s data center in Luxembourg.

So what data is stored then?

The EU Digital COVID Certificate contains your name, date of birth, the certificate issuer, and the digital signature of the certificate. In addition:

• For a vaccination certificate: vaccine type and manufacturer, number of doses received, date of vaccination;
• A test certificate: type of test, date and time of test, place, and result;
• For a recovery certificate: date of the positive test result, the validity period.

Let’s talk about which countries have already adopted and implemented the EU Digital COVID Certificate. Austria. Belgium. Bulgaria. Croatia. The Czech Republic. Denmark. Estonia. Germany. Greece. Latvia. Lithuania. Luxembourg. Poland. Portugal. Spain and Iceland (non-EU Schengen country). France and Italy will follow by the end of June 2021. The Regulation of the EU Digital COVID Certificat will remain in effect until 31 July 2022.

L'articolo EU Digital Covid Certificate. All We Need to Know. proviene da Dolores Semeraro Tourism Keynote Speaker.

In this article, we take a closer look at two of the main vaccine passports/travel passes currently being discussed around the world.

• IATA Travel Pass
• Digital Green Certificate (EU Only)

A vaccine passport or travel pass is not to be confused with an obligation to get a Covid-19 vaccine but more as an authentication tool that would enable the authorities to validate the authenticity of a PCR test or a Covid-19 vaccine. In order to do so, each laboratory or medical facility providing either a PCR test or a Covid-19 vaccine would have to be registered as part of the ‘network’ of authorized facilities. Several international institutions and technology companies are developing a digital vaccine passport to support and boost the travel recovery and restart of tourism.

THE IATA TRAVEL PASS

The IATA Travel Pass is a mobile application that helps travelers to store and manage their verified certifications for COVID-19 tests or COVID-19 vaccines. According to IATA, it is based on four modules:

Registry of Health Requirements. Enables passengers to find information on travel, testing, and vaccine requirements for their journey

Registry of testing/vaccination centers. Enables passengers to find testing centers and labs at their departure and/or arrival location that can conduct COVID-19 tests in accordance with the type of test required for their journey

Lab App. Enables authorized labs and test centers to securely send test results or vaccination certificates to passengers

IATA Travel Pass App. Enables passengers to create a ‘digital passport’, verify their test/vaccination meets the regulations & share tests or vaccination certificates with authorities to facilitate travel.

Singapore Airline completed the first trial of the IATA Travel Pass on the 17^th of March 2021 on the route Singapore – London. In this video, the IATA Travel Pass is explained as:

• A digital version of your passport (encrypted)
• A tool to check travel requirements for your destination once you enter your flight details
• A secure way to receive Covid19 test results when ready

And only when governments would ever issue a so-called ‘vaccine certificate’ and the person happen to have one because he/she chooses to get vaccinated, it can then be scanned and add it to the app, if – and that’s a big if – it is required for your travels.

However, this sits on the condition that governments should be first able to provide digital COVID-19 test/vaccination certificates to enable the system to verify directly through the app on their mobiles. The main challenges are detected among those countries that are distributing paper certificates or credits, which are often being false or replicated as fakes.

As such, the IATA Travel Pass is not to be confused with a must-have vaccine passport or travel pass for travelers in order to travel, but rather as a tool that would enable travelers to:

• Increase contactless custom checks with their digital passport
• Carry authenticated Covid-19 test results on their phone and not on paper
• Check travel conditions/restrictions in real-time

DIGITAL GREEN CERTIFICATE (EU)

The EU Digital Green Certificate will be valid in all EU Member States as digital proof that a person has either:

• Been vaccinated against COVID-19
• Received a negative test result or
• Recovered from COVID-19

The Digital Green Certificate under discussion to be accepted in all EU Member States. When traveling, every EU citizen and EU resident holding a Digital Green Certificate should be exempted from free movement restrictions. The EU Digital Green Certificate aims at facilitating free movement inside the EU and it is not envisioned as a precondition to free movement.

The approved vaccine range would refer only to EU-approved COVID-19 vaccines, this means that Russia’s Sputnik V and China’s Sinopharm vaccines won’t be recognized by the Digital Green Certificate.

After the initial discussion which took place last March 2021, the EU Digital Green Certificate is envisioned to be up and running by the end of June 2021. There are, however, concerns on how this could cause discrimination among those who:

• are willing to get vaccinated but are not eligible (health reasons, pregnancy, age)
• are not willing to get vaccinated

Moreover, several European countries have already started to develop their own national vaccine/test passes or apps. They are discussing whether the EU Digital Green Certificate would overrule those or not. More Vaccine Passports are included in the Travel Recovery Strategies Ebook, which offers a range of tools, and proven strategies to restart tourism.

Conclusions

A general confusion seems to pervade the travel sentiment around the topic of the travel passes/vaccine passports.

It is worth reiterating that these travel ‘credentials’ are not to be confused with an obligation to get a Covid-19 Vaccine. It’s more an authentication tool that would enable the authorities to validate the authenticity of a PCR test or a Covid-19 vaccine.

In order to do so, each laboratory or medical facility providing either a PCR test or a Covid-19 vaccine would have to be registered as part of the ‘network’ of authorized facilities.

As of now, the task of grouping test centers and medical facilities under one network appears to be rather challenging. In the EU, for example, the questions around privacy and the concerns on data usage are stalling the scrutiny process. It is important to mention that regardless of where, a vaccine passport, app, or pass is being considered also as a preventive measure to avoid the increasing numbers of false PCS tests circulating across countries.

While travel passes might be as simple as a contact-tracing app, it is only now – amid the pandemic – that these tools are being considered and at an initial stage of the trial. More updates will follow in regards to each one of these vaccine passports and for a comprehensive overview follow the link to get a copy of the Travel Recovery Strategies Ebook.

Written by Dolores Semeraro

L'articolo Vaccine Passport or Travel Pass, what to expect to restart tourism proviene da Dolores Semeraro Tourism Keynote Speaker.