COVID-19: Germany Rolls Out Digital Vaccination Pass

Germany has started rolling out a digital vaccination pass.

Gatekeepers News reports that Germany has started rolling out a digital vaccination pass that can be used across Europe, as the continent prepares for the main summer travel season.

The Nation’s Health Minister, Jens Spahn, on Thursday, said vaccination centers, doctors practices, and pharmacies will gradually start giving out digital passes (CovPass) to fully vaccinated people, starting from this week.

Spahn said the CovPass will allow users to download proof of their coronavirus vaccination status onto a smartphone app, which will give them easy access to restaurants, museums, or other venues that require proof of immunisation.

The Health Minister stated that the vaccination passport should be available to everyone in Germany who is fully vaccinated by the end of June.

Spahn said, “The goal is that this certificate can also be used in Helsinki, Amsterdam, or Mallorca.”

He explained that people who have been fully vaccinated will either receive a letter with a QR-code which they can scan with their phones or visit their doctors or pharmacies to retroactively get the digital pass.

The Health Minister said, “By doing so, we in the European Union are setting a cross-border standard that doesn’t exist elsewhere in the world yet,” noting that the digital vaccination pass is an important step for the revival of international tourism.

The country’s disease control agency, the Robert Koch Institute, on Thursday, reported that 47% of the population, or about 39.1 million people, have gotten one shot, while almost 24%, or 19.9 million people, are fully vaccinated.

On Wednesday, almost 1.3 million people received a jab which was the second highest daily number ever.

Meanwhile, Germany’s Committee on vaccinations, Stiko, has recommended that children aged 12 to 15 only, can receive the shot if they have certain illnesses such as chronic lung or heart diseases, obesity, dpa reported. However, healthy teenagers can also be vaccinated if they, their parents, and doctors decide to do so.

Nevertheless, the German panel’s opinion differs from the European Medicines Agency, which last month recommended the extension of the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to children 12 to 15, a decision that offers younger and less at-risk populations across the continent access to a COVID-19 shot for the first time.

The head of Stiko, Thomas Mertens, however, noted that while youths are very well protected by the vaccine, only a few children and teenagers had participated in medical studies, adding that possible severe side effects could therefore not be excluded.

Mertens stressed that the recommendation was also based on the fact that very few children fall severely ill with COVID-19 which is in contrast to older people.