Green pass covid, everything you need to know

Green pass or digital European Covid certificate to travel to Europe. A pass that should exempt travelers within the EU from testing and / or quarantine obligations. But who can get it? And how? How long does it last? The Green pass will be valid “fourteen days after the last dose” of the anti-Covid vaccine and, for those recovered from the coronavirus, for 180 days from the positive PCR test. For the tests, on the other hand, the molecular ones will be valid for “72 hours”, while the rapid ones will be “48 hours”, explained the European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders, presenting the new travel recommendation proposal at a press conference in Brussels. in the EU, requested by the European Council last week in view of the summer season. From today, 1 June, it will be technically possible for EU states that are ready and interested in doing so to already issue digital EU Covid certificates, or Green Passes, and recognize those issued by other member states. Today the European Commission will make the Gateway, the platform that will allow the EU certificate to work across borders, fully operational. The pass will be a right of all EU citizens who have the requisites (vaccination, recovery or test) starting from 1 July, when the regulation that establishes it will come into force. “The expected date for the start of the European green pass is June 15: it will be an IT model, but until it comes into operation it can be replaced by a paper document “, explained the Minister of Tourism Massimo Garavaglia who underlined:” In Europe you will travel with three rules: vaccine, tampon, or antibodies. The important thing is that the rules are clear and simple “. Vaccine, recovery, testing: the requirements People fully vaccinated, i.e. with two doses for AstraZeneca, Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna and with one dose for Janssen (J&J), who hold the certificate, should be exempt, traveling, from testing and quarantine 14 days after receiving the last dose. The same must apply to people who have recovered and who have received only one dose of the vaccine, which is considered sufficient for protection against the disease.In the event that a Member State accepts a vaccination test to remove restrictions on free movement after the first dose, then he must also accept EU vaccine passes under the same conditions. If a country wants to be “more flexible” than the recommendation, “it can do it”, explains a senior EU official. But this flexibility must apply to everyone, it cannot be limited to the citizens of that particular country. People recovered from Covid-19 should be exempt from testing and / or quarantines in the 180 days following the positive PCR test, which certifies the infection. (the validity is starting from the eleventh day after the test, once the period of contagiousness has ended). For those who are not vaccinated or cured, then there remains the option of the test, which the pass certifies and which is thus recognized also abroad.A standard validity period is proposed for the tests (today each country determines the period of validity independently ): validity for PCR or molecular tests is 72 hours, while for rapid antigenic tests it is 48 hours. An emergency brake mechanism is envisaged: States can reintroduce restrictions also for vaccinated and cured people, if the epidemiological situation deteriorates rapidly or where a high prevalence of worrying variants is reported. Beyond the pass holders, simplification is also proposed, as far as possible in a Union of 27, and clarification of the requirements necessary to travel. For travelers arriving from the green areas (according to the map updated every Thursday by the ECDC), there should be no restrictions.For those arriving from the orange zones, it is possible to request a test (rapid or PCR) before departure. For those traveling from a red zone, states can request a quarantine, in the absence of a PCR or rapid negative test. For travelers from dark red areas, the principle holds that movement from these zones should be “strongly discouraged”. In these cases, testing and (not ‘or’) quarantine requirements should remain. To avoid separating families at the borders, minors traveling with parents exempt from quarantine, for example because they are vaccinated, should be exempted they too from quarantine (otherwise, holidays abroad for families with children would be impossible). Children under 6 years of age should also be exempted from testing. In addition, the Commission proposes to adapt the thresholds used for ECDC maps, which are authentic for many EU states and for Council recommendations, even if later on. States use the chromatic scale they want within their borders (the Italian white zone, for example, does not exist in the range used in the EU). ‘Aosta, Tuscany, Campania, Puglia, Basilicata and Calabria, which are red) proposes to increase the threshold of the cumulative notification rate of new cases in the last 14 days from 50 to 75; for the red zones the rate is raised from the current 50-150 to 75-150.Finally, for people who have the first vaccine injection in one Member State and the second in another, each of the two States is required to provide certification injection, so that the holder can have a certificate consisting of certificates issued by two different Member States.