Covid-19 vaccination certificates will only be valid for nine months starting Tuesday in the European Union.
The European Council gave the green light to the proposal on Dec. 21 outlining new rules on the EU vaccination certificate which from Feb. 1 will be valid for a period of 270 days.
Rules
Romania will implement the measure in the near future, Raed Arafat, the head of the country’s emergency services said Monday.
The Committee for Emergency Situations on Monday said it was scrapping travel restrictions based on the number of cases in a given country.
Arrivals will have to present a valid Covid-19 certificate, or proof they had the virus. If they don’t have either, they will have to spend five days in quarantine.
The European Commission claims that the validity period has been based on available scientific evidence as well as objective criteria.
“This validity period takes into account the guidance of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, according to which booster doses are recommended at the latest six months after the completion of the first vaccination cycle,” the Commission said.
Booster doses
“The certificate will remain valid for a grace period of an additional three months beyond those six months to ensure that national vaccination campaigns can adjust and citizens will have access to booster doses,” the Commission explains.
The Commission said some 807 million EU Digital Covid Certificates had been issued by December 21.
More than 60 countries and territories across five continents have joined the system through which these certificates are checked and verified.
Two-dose vaccination
According to the Commission, booster doses will be recorded in the certificates. Booster doses of two-dose vaccination series will be recorded as “3/3”, whereas booster doses of single-dose vaccines will be recorded as “2/1”.
At the same time, those who recovered from Covid-19 and received the first dose of a two-dose vaccine will have it recorded as “2/1” in their certificates.
The certificates will not hold a validity date, but the mobile applications used to verify the them will be adjusted to verify whether 270 days have passed from the last vaccination date.
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