Free certificates of vaccination, negative testing or past illnesses have been issued and recognized by all EU countries, in addition to Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
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The only exception is Ireland, which justified its delay in launching the system by technical problems.
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In the spring, the EU Member States and the European Parliament hastily approved the introduction of passports to make it easier for people to go on summer holidays and to encourage tourism suffering from pandemic restrictions.
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Within its framework, the EU countries are obliged to recognize full vaccination with vaccines approved in the EU, ie Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.
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Recovery also has the right to a certificate
People with a PCR test up to 72 hours old can also receive the certificate. It depends on the country whether they also accept antigen tests. People who have demonstrably suffered from the disease in the last six months also have the right to a covid passport.
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Most countries, including the Czech Republic, joined the system as part of a trial run during June.
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According to the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, the authorities created over 200 million certificates by Thursday.
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“The European digital covid certificate is a symbol of an open and secure Europe that is opening cautiously and in the first place is the protection of the health of the population,” the head of the EU executive said on Thursday.
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However, even in view of the growing number of people infected in part of the Union, it is possible that some states may in the future require, for example, an additional test or quarantine even for holders of so-called covid passports.
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Additional Terms
These conditions are already applied by Germany to tourists from Portugal, where the delta mutation has been spreading since mid-June.
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If a State wishes to introduce exceptional measures, it must inform the countries concerned at least two days in advance. Detailed information on travel conditions to individual countries is updated by the commission on the website.
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EU countries should provide their citizens with free or affordable tests for the purposes of the certificate. The Commission has set aside 100 million euros (over 2.5 billion crowns) from common EU funds for the costs associated with this.
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The certificate cannot yet be used for trips to Ireland, which has postponed the launch of the system due to a recent cyber attack on health care servers.
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