ARCHIVED - Spain begins issuing and accepting EU Covid Passports

All Spanish airports are now accepting EU Digital Covid Certificates and various regions are issuing them as of Monday 7th June

Spain is one of the first countries to launch the so-called ‘Covid passports’, almost three weeks ahead of the official deadline on 1 July, following the lead of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Croatia and Poland.

The certificates will provide Covid-related data to facilitate travel within Europe and regional health services will be progressively rolling them out and increasing their features over the next few days and weeks. By the end of the month, the documents will attest to whether their bearers are fully vaccinated, have negative PCR test results or have recovered from the virus within the previous six months.

Certificates will be free and available in digital or paper format. There was some debate in the EU on whether those who apply for additional certificates should have to pay for them to avoid fraud, but Spain has confirmed that it will not be applying fees to initial or subsequent copies.  

Data included in the QR codes on the certificates will be kept to the necessary minimum to respect data privacy laws, the authorities have said. 

Digital Health Secretary Alfredo González explained that visitors are now allowed to enter Spain as long as they are fully vaccinated, regardless of where they come from or whether they have the official certificate. It is not, he explained, a passport to enable travel, simply a document to facilitate it. Those who can prove they are vaccinated will not be turned away, but their entry into the country will be much slower, and additional checks and measures may apply.

Andalucía became the first region to announce that it was issuing Covid passports from Monday onwards to those aged over 65 who had been fully vaccinated and would be rolling out the scheme to other ages from next week onwards as second doses were administered.

Murcia and Valencia have both also made announcements about the implementation of the scheme and in Murcia the regional Covid passport scheme came into operation on 14th June.