The European Commission has approved this Thursday a draft recommendation that will make the extension of the validity of the COVID certificate subject to the administration of a booster dose of the vaccine. The proposal, which needs the approval of the EU States to enter into force, advocates limiting the validity of the certificate to a period of nine months, which would force to receive a new puncture from that period to have the document that allows you to travel without restrictions through the community territory. In many countries, in addition, the certificate is an essential requirement for many social activities. The Commission proposes that the new rules come into force on January 10, 2022.
The draft recommendation will update the current regulations, which allow obtaining the certificate when it is accredited to have received the complete schedule of the vaccine, to have overcome the disease or to have carried out a test with a negative result. In principle, the certificate did not have an expiration date in the case of the vaccine, but Brussels considers it necessary to temporarily limit its validity after having found that protection is reduced over time.
The European Center for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC) already recommended this Wednesday that a booster dose be administered to the entire adult population of the EU, with special priority to those over 40 years of age. The ECDC suggests that the new puncture, which would be the third for the vast majority of Europeans, take place six months after the initial schedule has been completed.
The Commission also proposes that preventive measures after a trip within the EU, such as the obligation to carry out a test or to keep a quarantine, are no longer set based on the origin of the traveler, but on their covid certificate. The only exception would be people from areas with a very low vaccination rate and a very fast spread of the virus. These areas will continue to be identified with a dark red color on the epidemiological situation map that the ECDC publishes each week.
The epidemiological map will continue to classify the countries with the colors green (for the best controlled pandemic situation), orange, red and dark red (for the most uncontrolled situation). The draft recommendation adds a dark gray color to identify countries where the number of tests is considered insufficient and gray, for countries that do not provide data.
Brussels is confident that the new rules will help speed up vaccination campaigns, which in many countries have stalled at a level below 70% of the population and in some have not even reached 50%. “We have vaccinated more than 65% of the total population of the EU, but that is not enough,” said the European Commissioner for Health, Stella Kyriakides, after approving the new recommendation. “There are still too many people who are not protected,” added the commissioner.
The Commission also wants to prevent the application of booster doses to people already vaccinated from leading to different or contradictory regulations in each country regarding freedom of movement. The European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, has indicated that the “main objective is to avoid divergent norms in the EU and that also applies to the booster doses, which are going to be essential for the fight against the virus”.
The covid certificate, which came into force last summer, has been one of the EU’s instruments to harmonize the rules on movement within the community. In just over five months, 650 million certificates have been issued, according to the data provided this Thursday by the Commission. The certificate is valid in the 27 EU countries and in 24 other non-EU countries that have decided to use the European system.
Third countries
The Commission has also proposed this Thursday to update the recommendations on travelers from third countries. Brussels proposes that as of next January 10, all people who have received a vaccine authorized by the World Health Organization (WHO) be allowed to enter. Currently, this recognition depends on each Member State.
The Community Executive, however, establishes a safeguard: if the vaccine has been authorized by the WHO but not by the European Medicines Agency, as is the case with the Russian or Chinese vaccines, the traveler must also provide a negative test made before starting the trip.
Brussels also proposes to suppress from next March 1 the list of countries considered safe and from which you can travel to EU territory. The list, drawn up after the reopening of the closed borders in the first phase of the pandemic, now has only about twenty countries. But the Commission considers that the advancement of vaccination campaigns in almost the entire planet will make it unnecessary to classify countries based on their presumed safety. Brussels advocates granting travel authorization based on the situation of each traveler (vaccinated or recovered from the disease) regardless of their country of origin.
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