Sweden is in the midst of developing a digital vaccine passport that will be valid for travel within the EU.
The vaccine passport will be in place on June 1, but a number of question marks remain, says the head of the authority, Mats Snäll, who is leading the work.
”"It all depends on the conditions. It is still uncertain what the requirements will be."”
The Swedish Agency for Digital Development, Digg, has been tasked with developing a vaccination certificate, a kind of vaccination passport, to facilitate travel within the EU.
The head of digital development, Mats Snäll, is leading the work and feels that Sweden is on schedule and will begin testing the service in April. The Swedish proposal for a vaccine certificate has become the technical model that the entire EU is working on, he says.
”"The EU has just submitted a proposal for a regulation and the Swedish technical proposal forms the basis for the EU's position on the level of security chosen for the technical framework," says Mats Snäll at a webinar held by the Swedish Travel and Tour Operators Association, SRF, this week.
But a number of question marks remain. In addition to showing whether a traveler is vaccinated, the passport should provide information about whether the traveler has had COVID-19 and whether antibodies are present. A recent negative COVID test should also be an alternative and thus be included in the vaccine passport.
The passport should be issued both digitally and on paper with a QR code with all the necessary information that can be easily scanned at the border.
”"The Public Health Agency manages the national vaccination register, but we also need to get hold of the sources for negative and positive tests, they are somewhat unclear. It is not certain that all of this needs to be included in the end, but it is important that the conditions are in place and they are not yet," says Mats Snäll.
On March 26, 5.5 percent of all Swedes over the age of 18 had been vaccinated and according to the latest announcement, all adults should have received at least one dose of vaccine before the end of the year.
Mats Snäll has a cautious hope that the vaccine passport will be ready by June 1. But that also requires the EU to decide which regulation will apply.
”"The mission will be time-controlled by the EU, but it will not be in place on June 1, rather it will be in the latter part of June," says Mats Snäll.
Travel giants TUI and Apollo welcome the vaccine passports but do not see a major increase in the number of bookings for trips during the spring and early summer. It is only towards the autumn that travel looks set to pick up.
Strict restrictions are still in place throughout the EU, and in some countries such as Norway, Finland, Belgium and the Czech Republic, there is a ban on entry for tourists.
”"There is more of an uncertainty now in the spring, in line with more vagueness in recommendations. Further towards the autumn there is greater security for travel, where we see high demand. It is also still there when we look even further ahead," says Jessica Enbacka, CEO of Tui Nordic.
Leif Vase Larsen, CEO of Apollo, with a focus on Greek travel, agrees:
”"It is mainly in July and onwards that we see the most bookings. There we have a booking rate of 50-60 percent."”
That there is a The desire to travel once the pandemic has subsided is shown not least by the survey recently conducted by the international aviation organization IATA. Of those surveyed, 57 percent are prepared to travel within two months if they believe the pandemic is reasonably under control.
However, quarantine regulations discourage travel. 84 percent say they would opt out of traveling if there were quarantine requirements in the country.
”"It is incredibly important to have digital vaccination and test certificates that can replace quarantine rules. And here we are already seeing positive signals, with Iceland, Latvia and Lithuania being some countries that are easing both test and quarantine rules if you have a vaccination certificate," says Catrin Mattsson, Head of the Nordics at IATA.
Source: di.se
