ARCHIVED - Spain to implement EU Covid passport scheme during June in bid to boost tourism
The “green certificate” scheme will be introduced with only 30 per cent of Spaniards vaccinated
The Spanish government has confirmed that it will be implementing the EU’s “immunity passport” scheme in June of this year, facilitating travel within the Union for those whose immune status against Covid-19 is certifiable and demonstrable, despite the fact that as the summer begins only around 30 per cent of the population of this country are likely to have been vaccinated.
The government’s own latest projections anticipate that by the middle of June no more than 15 million of the 47.3 million people living in this country will be immunized against coronavirus, while the remainder will therefore be restricted in their ability to travel abroad – for them, international journeys will necessarily be preceded by certified tests which show either that they have already had the virus and are producing antibodies, or that they have not been infected, the latter with a negative PCR test performed in the period immediately prior to travel.
The “green certificate” will be managed and administered by each of Spain’s regional authorities in collaboration with the national Ministry of Health. It will exist both in digital form (QR Wallet, PDF with QR) and on paper, stamped by regional health authorities, and will have to be presented when travellers arrive in their country of destination.
At the same time, the majority of Spaniards will not be protected against possible contagion via holidaymakers arriving in this country from elsewhere in Europe, although of course those visitors will also be required to provide an immunity passport or “green certificate” documentation. This, according to Alfredo González, the general secretary of Salud Digital, provides assurance that Spain can welcome visitors in confidence that they do not represent a risk to public health.
The green certificate scheme will be in operation throughout the EU and will be “free and universal”, Sr González adds, and data protection and privacy rights will be fully respected. It is hoped that the digital certification scheme will be extended to other non-EU nations over the coming weeks, the UK possibly being among them.
The major downside of the scheme is that the vaccine certificate does not automatically guarantee the right to travel anywhere in Europe freely, as individual countries are still entitled to apply their own restrictions about who is allowed into, and who can leave, their own territories, based on their current epidemiological situation.
It is also now becoming apparant, that even having been vaccinated against the virus with two doses of the vaccine does not give 100 per cent protection, but instead minimises the chances of any infection developing into a serious or life-threatening situation. It is however, fully possible to contract the virus even once vaccinated and continue to transmit it to others without becoming ill, hence the huge concern worldwide about the development of new variants.
The opinion being expressed in many quarters is that the only solution to halting the spread and development of new variants is to vaccinate the whole world population in order for herd immunity to prevent the onward spread of the virus and limit the opportunities for new variants to develop, and stop travel altogether for a period of months. But of course, we also know that this would create significant economic problems and many of the population simply wouldn´t accept this level of restriction.
As the human race is patently not willing to take the drastic steps required to stop these variants developing, caution must continue to be exercised, and although the prospect of a holiday is alluring, common sense should persuade most of us to remain where we are for the moment.
However, as we know by now, it only takes one person to travel to another country carrying a new variant and all the good work of the last year can be so easily and so rapidly undone; just consider that a few months ago Spain had no cases of the Kent (British) variant at all, and even with border restrictions in place it is now the predominant variant in Spain. How did that happen????? Easily, it appears.