:Passengers arriving from Germany and Switzerland stand with their luggage outside the terminal of the Heraklion airport, as the country's tourism season officially opens, on the island of Crete, Greece, May 15, 2021. REUTERS/Stefanos Rapanis
The European Union could adopt a Covid-health document that would allow people to prove they’ve been vaccinated, tested or recovered from the virus to speed travel and facilitate larger public gatherings, a French official said.
A health travel pass in the EU will be available from around June 20, French junior minister for European Affairs Clement Beaune said in an interview Sunday on Europe 1 radio interview. The pass will show either proof of vaccination against Covid-19, immunity due to past infection or the result of a negative PCR test. Beaune says he’s pushing for quarantine measures to be lifted once the pass is operational. Only vaccines approved by the European Medicine Agency will be accepted as proof of vaccination. That would exclude Russian and Chinese vaccines, he explained. France will implement its own health pass from June 9 for major gatherings of more than 1,000 such as festivals and concerts, he added.
In the UK, which is allowing leisure travel to resume from Monday, the spread of the Indian variant could threaten the final phase of lockdown easing set for June 21, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Sunday.
