Vaccination could facilitate travel and bring other benefits. However, currently only vaccines and certificates issued in the Czech Republic are accepted. The Ministry of Health justifies this decision by concerns of forgery of the document. Photo Credit: Freepik / Illustrative Photo.
Czech Rep., May 13 (BD) – Since May 4th, vaccinated people traveling to the Czech Republic from medium and high-risk countries have not been required to present a negative test for Covid-19. However, this does not apply to those who received their vaccination outside the Czech Republic.
Health Minister Petr Arenberger justified this decision by arguing that it was impossible to verify the authenticity of certificates issued by other Member States. He referred to the latest Europol report, which urges increased vigilance among Member States and third-party countries of the possible involvement of criminals in the vaccine development and distribution process.
A spokeswoman for the ministry, Jana Schillerová, responded that the verification of foreign certificates should be resolved by a “Covid passport”, which will be common to all states of the European Union.
“The technical and methodological solution to this situation is currently being prepared,” she said.
Member States are currently negotiating with the European Parliament on the form of a certificate to make it easier for people with vaccinations, negative tests, or antibodies to travel across borders. At the same time, complex negotiations are expected to begin with third countries over whether to recognize vaccination with a substance not approved for use in the European Union.
On Thursday, after consultations with his Austrian counterpart, Alexander Schallenberg, Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhánek (ČSSD) said that an EU-wide solution should be ready by July 1st.
“All countries are starting to build their systems, certificate systems after vaccination, past illnesses. The goal is to start recognizing each other’s documents. This will then form the basis of a pan-European system”, stated Schallenberg.
