6 new countries join EU COVID pass system

By Agnes Szucs

BRUSSELS (AA) – Six new countries joined the European Union’s COVID-19 certificate system, the European Commission announced on Wednesday.

As of today, COVID-19 certificates issued by officials in Albania, the microstate of Andorra, Israel, Monaco, Morocco, and Panama, as well as Denmark’s autonomous Faroe Islands, are accepted by the EU.

In reciprocity, EU citizens will also be able to use their COVID-19 passes when traveling to those countries.

The new equivalence decisions bring the total number of participants to 42, including 27 member states and 15 non-EU countries, including EU candidate country Turkey, which joined the system last month.

“This is a win-win situation: citizens can enjoy their right to free movement and businesses as well as the transport sector can start making up for the losses of past months,” EU Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders said, welcoming the newcomers to the EU system.

Since June, over 420 million EU digital passes have been issued, according to European Commission estimates.

The pass proves if a person has received all the recommended doses of vaccine approved by the European Medicine Agency (EMA), had a negative PCR test over the past 72 hours, or recovered from the illness in the last six months.

The document is available on smartphone or paper format, featuring a QR code that allows authorities to determine the COVID status of the traveler.

The EMA-authorized vaccines are the products of pharmaceuticals Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, CureVac, or Johnson&Johnson.

Those who have not been vaccinated will have to take a test, while those inoculated with other vaccines will have to check the entry requirements at the destination country.