While vaccination campaigns are now well under way in many countries, at a more or less sustained pace, the idea of a vaccination passport is gaining ground here and there. Israel, a model in this field, intends to issue a "green passport to its residents just after they have received their second dose of vaccine. Valid for six months, it will allow them to attend public events, whether cultural or family-related, as well as business events such as conferences. The use of this sesame There are also plans to give them greater access to restaurants, hotels and shopping centres...
While vaccination campaigns are now well under way in many countries, at a more or less sustained pace, the idea of a vaccination passport is gaining ground here and there. Israel, a model in this field, intends to issue a "green passport to its residents just after they have received their second dose of vaccine. Valid for six months, it will allow them to attend public events, whether cultural or family-related, as well as business events such as conferences. The use of this sesame There are also plans to give them greater access to restaurants, hotels and shopping centres, without making the passport compulsory on public transport.
Earlier this week, this solution, which had already been mooted in France by some politicians at the end of last year, was supported by the Medefconcerned about convention centres and exhibition centres. The employers' organisation called on the government to adopt the principle of a health passport for access to trade fairs. " If you don't want to be vaccinated, don't go to the exhibition and follow it digitally; if you want to go to the exhibition, have your vaccination passport and can go to the event.explained Medef spokesman Fabrice Le Saché to France Inter. Once again, it's voluntary, temporary and helps the events industry to get back on its feet. "
Particularly hard hit by a closure that continues to drag on, the sector is doing everything it can to get back on its feet. But is the initiative proposed by Medef a miracle solution? We'll have to wait and see, because, given the vaccination programmes planned for the coming months, the trade fairs dedicated to senior citizens, serious illnesses and carers are likely to be the only ones that don't ring hollow for a while...
More broadly, the tourism sector is still looking for a way out of the impasse caused by restrictions on border crossings and the closure to the public of cultural and festive venues. So it's not surprising to see the Greecewhose economy depends in part on tourism, to be the first country in Europe to put forward the idea of a vaccination certificate within the EU. On 12 January, its Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, sent a letter to this effect to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
" There is an urgent need for a common understanding of how a vaccination certificate should be structured in order to be accepted in all Member States." said Kyriakos Mitsotakis, no doubt aware of the long time Europe will need to agree on a common solution before the start of the summer season. With this certificate, the Greek initiative does not aim to make vaccination compulsory for travel, but above all to making it easier for immunised people to get around. At the same time, it is urging those who are not yet vaccinated to get inoculated.
Reticence about the vaccine passport
The Greek proposal should be discussed at forthcoming European summits. However, while some governments are in favour of this form of vaccine passport, others are not. more reticentparticularly in France. The French Minister for Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebarri, spoke out against the idea in an interview with LCI on 11 January: "We have a vaccination campaign starting all over the world, with the aim of achieving collective immunity. without resorting to population segmentation. "
While some of the criticisms of the vaccine passport are ethical - no discrimination against the freedom of movement of those who do not want to be vaccinated, or cannot be vaccinated for allergy reasons - the idea does not meet with consensus among scientists either. Impact of new variants on vaccine efficacy, duration of protection... of many uncertainties remain to be resolved. Starting with the contagiousness of vaccinated people, even though they are protected against severe forms of the coronavirus.
As a result, apart from the Australian airline Qantas which put forward the idea of compulsory vaccination for its flights, the air transport industry is campaigning for test-driven solutions, than for a vaccine passport. For the time being, these are the only tests that can guarantee against the spread of the pandemic. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has made these tests the only way to guarantee against the spread of the pandemic. his hobbyhorse and is calling on governments around the world to make them commonplace and open up their borders more widely, avoid quarantine. And, in doing so, boost travel.
Unfortunately, in his latest briefing on 12 January, the chairman of the association, Alexandre de Juniac, deplored the fact that governments had not loosened the noose. faced with the threat of the virus mutatingOn the contrary: "Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan and other countries have added tests to their Covid-19 measures, without eliminating quarantine requirements. "The last few days have seen the France and United States to do the same recently.
However, IATA is not giving up. " We are continuing to prepare for the day when governments are ready to open borders with tests or vaccinations." underlines Alexandre de Juniac. At the end of December, the association launched the pilot phase of its Travel Pass application with Singapore Airlines on routes to Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta. This high-tech version of the international vaccination record allows passengers to digitally store their Covid tests - or even proof of vaccination - and present them in the form of QR codes at check-in or at border controls. The aim is to streamline the entire airport process and, above all, to provide passengers with a single point of contact. unfalsifiable trace of negative tests carried out by approved laboratories.
High-tech health certificates
" We are still on track for a full roll-out of the application in the first quarter this year" says Alexandre de Juniac. For Margaret Tan, Director of Airport Operations Regulation and Aviation Security at the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, "This is an innovative approach that ensures a smooth journey while reassuring health services and border agencies that passengers have the necessary credentials to protect public health. We hope that other countries and airlines will consider adopting a similar approach.. "
Since the last quarter of 2020, other players have also been working on setting up these famous "yellow notebooks 2.0.. The Common Passsupported by the World Economic Forum, began testing in the United States and the United Kingdom in October and has attracted interest from airlines such as Lufthansa, Swiss and United Airlines. Meanwhile, the ICC AOKpass mobile application, developed by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in partnership with SGS and International SOSDelta Air Lines and Alitalia were able to offer "quarantine-free" flights between New York and Rome.
Africa is also moving in this direction with the Trusted Travel initiative. Driven by the African UnionThe Covid digital pass has been launched by the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and pan-African technology specialist PanaBIOS. Since 11 January in Kenya, the civil aviation authority has required departing passengers to prove their negativity digitally, supported by a network of authorised laboratories.
" The movement is underway. Many private players are introducing health certificates designed to give evidential value to test results and based on the quality of laboratories.Augustin de Romanet, CEO of the ADP group, remarked this week in an interview on Europe 1. A development which, although it is essentially in the private sector, nevertheless finds favour in the eyes of the head of the Paris airports: " If the health certificate can help to reduce unemployment and improve health safety, we need to talk about it."
