Greece ready to use COVID-19 pass before July to save summer

Greece is ready to use a COVID-19 travel certificate before its EU-wide launch on July 1 to attract foreign travellers and save its tourism sector from a second summer lost to the coronavirus.

Greece was one of the early advocates of a certificate that would ease European Union travel curbs and help pull the country’s economy from recession by lifting tourism revenues.

The European Council and parliament last week reached a deal on the digital green certificate following a rapid pick-up of vaccinations allowing widespread lifting of coronavirus curbs.

The European Parliament is expected to pass a law in the week from June 7 and more than a dozen EU countries, including France and Spain, have agreed to test the system before a launch on July 1.

The certificate would show if a person had received a vaccine, had a recent negative test or had immunity based on recovery.

“It is very, very simple. Essentially, it includes all the information that a member-state would need to welcome a traveller without imposing additional restrictions,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said at a presentation of the pass on Friday.