New rule applies from February 1st
Today the European Commission “adopted new rules related to the EU digital Covid certificate”, or Green Pass, establishing “an acceptance period of 9 months, or 270 days, for the vaccination certificate for travel purposes within the EU. “. EU executive spokesman Christian Wigand said this during a press briefing in Brussels.
The new rule will apply starting from 1 February 2022, that is to say that, starting from that date, all Member States will accept the certificate for a validity of 270 days starting from the completion of the first vaccination cycle, i.e. from the date the second dose for Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca, and the date of the single dose for Janssen.
The rule, introduced through an act delegated by the Commission, is binding for all Member States and comes after the European Council called for a coordinated approach to travel restrictions. A uniform period of validity of the Pass will help EU countries to coordinate better. The period of validity was decided on the basis of the opinion of the ECDC, according to which the third dose of vaccine is recommended “at the latest” six months after the completion of the first vaccination course against Covid-19. A recommendation that cannot always be respected, given that not a few countries are late in administering third doses.
Three months are added to these six months, a grace period that should allow states to speed up the administration of boosters. The duration of the certificate after vaccination with the third dose has not yet been determined, because “we have yet to gather the scientific evidence” related to the immunity conferred by the booster, explains spokesman Christian Wigand. Up to now, around 807 million certificates have been issued in the EU: 60 countries on all continents have joined the system.
Source-www.adnkronos.com