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Austria wants to introduce a digital “green passport” as soon as possible for vaccinated, recovered and negative examinees, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced in Vienna on Wednesday with the Vice Chancellor, Health Minister and Foreign Minister.
At the moment, the green passport will only be available to people within the country until a common agreement is reached in the European Union on its introduction, the foreign minister said. It is planned to set up a technical and legal baggage in mid-April that will allow, in the first instance, those with a negative result in the test to verify that they are not infected by means of a QR code on their mobile phone, which makes it easy to visit restaurants that reopen over time, cultural and sports facilities
According to government plans, by June, those vaccinated and those who have been confirmed to have the disease can already enjoy the benefits of a digital green passport.
This not only means freedom of movement, but also the opportunity to return to a normal life.
Kurz said.
It is not a vaccination certificate, since it is also given to those who take the test or have already recovered from the disease, so no one can affirm that the measure would be discriminatory for those who for some reason do not want to be vaccinated.
the Chancellor emphasized.
He expressed the hope that by the summer a single green passport will be born to facilitate travel in the EU, reestablishing borders, removing travel restrictions and various quarantine obligations, and boosting tourism.
The Chancellor also spoke about inequalities in the distribution of vaccines in the EU and welcomed the “closed solution”. This could be based on the ten million doses of the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine that the manufacturer has submitted to the EU for the second quarter.
Regarding the continued use of the AstraZenaca vaccine, he said he was confident of the thoughtful and comprehensive decision of the professionals and that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) would likely reach a similar decision on Thursday.
After detailing the latest epidemiological data, Health Minister Rudolf Anschober drew attention to the rapid spread of the British virus mutation in the eastern provinces and highlighted the importance of expanding testing opportunities: street tests, pharmacies, surgeries of general practitioners and companies. He said 436,000 tests were conducted nationwide on Tuesday, a 24-hour record. And he added: the number of those who have already received at least the first dose of vaccination exceeded one million one hundred thousand, which is 11 percent of the vaccinable population.
In Austria, 3,239 people have been recently diagnosed with the virus in the last 24 hours and 501,224 positive cases have been recorded since the outbreak began. There are 1,451 people hospitalized with the coronavirus disease and 400 people in need of intensive care. Thirty people died from complications of the disease last day, bringing the death toll to 8,956. The number of people who recovered from the disease was 463,714.
Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler and Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg announced at a press conference that the government had decided to deploy € 13.5 million in close cooperation with Austrian aid organizations in the three crisis areas most affected by the disaster, where, in addition to local conflicts. A total of € 7 million in humanitarian aid can be expected from four African countries – Ethiopia, Uganda, Mozambique and Burkina Faso – € 2.5 million from Jordan and Lebanon and € 1.5 million from Ukraine.
(MTI)
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