Spain starts issuing EU 'Covid pass' for travellers

SEVEN regions are now starting to issue 'Covid passports' showing the holder has been vaccinated, is immune through having had the virus, or has a negative test result.

Spain has been included now on the European Union's list of countries issuing the so-called 'green passport' – at the beginning of today (Monday), its status was showing as 'ready', but this has changed to 'in effect' after the ministry of health made contact with Brussels.

Several thousand of these cards have been requested today alone, and although the national health authority has started the transactions for sending them out via its own website, the responsibility for issuing them lies with regional governments.

So far, the Comunidad Valenciana – the three east-coast provinces of Alicante, Valencia and Castellón – the southern region of Andalucía, and in the north, Galicia, Aragón and Navarra have just started issuing 'Covid passports', whilst Extremadura, in the west, has already handed over 1,297 of them and Castilla y León, north of the centre, is up to 8,682 'passports'.

The national health ministry has received a further 60 applications for these via its website, mainly from regions that have not started printing them directly.

Director-General of 'digital health', Alfredo González, says he is 'confident' that the 'majority' of region will start to produce them over the course of this week.

He says all of them should be doing so in time for July 1, when these become compulsory for cross-border travel.

Although it is still a pilot scheme for the rest of this month, the documents issued pre-July will still be valid from the start and continue to be so after they become mandatory.

Spain is now country number nine to join the 'green passport' scheme – it was seven at the start of the day, but Spain and Lithuania were added to the 'in effect' list before the evening.

Meanwhile, transport authorities have moved quickly: 'Covid passport' readers are now in place in all Spanish ports and airports for any passengers arriving from other European countries.

Creating the Europe-wide 'green passport' has been 'a complex operation', González admits: Preparation started around two months ago and over 200 meetings between the health ministry and the regional governments took place, since some regions 'had a more advanced system than others'.

Also, Spain had to ensure its systems nationwide were set up to be able to recognise 'Covid passes' from all EU member States issuing them.

González stresses that from the very moment a person has his or her 'green passport', they can travel to another EU member State immediately, and no other requisites for entry are required.

In Spain, however, the traveller information form still has to be completed and the 'Covid certificate' entered on it, meaning the details on the 'green passport' will automatically appear when the usual QR code, generated by the travel form, is scanned by border guards.

Elsewhere, as long as the destination country is part of the scheme, the traveller only has to scan the 'pass', without having to queue.

It either comes in paper format or can be downloaded onto a mobile phone, both of which can be scanned.

González says he is reluctant to call it a 'passport', since not having one is no barrier to travelling within the EU, but 'it makes the process much quicker and easier'.

He considers maintaining the passenger information form is a 'safeguard' or 'reinforcement', since it allows contacts to be traced if an infected person has been on an airline.

If the traveller has not been vaccinated, and has not had Covid-19 and developed antibodies rendering him or her immune, they must take either a PCR test or a fast-track antigen test – the cheaper option – within 48 hours of arrival, and be able to show the results which, of course, must be negative.

Tests have to be paid for, but the actual cards are free of charge.