How to get your EU Digital Covid Certificate to travel in Europe
Viviane Vaz for Id International
As from July 1st, the European Digital Covid Certificate is the best document for travellers willing to visit an EU country this Summer.
What is the Covid certificate? It is a document informing authorities that the person about to cross an EU border is “covid-safe” and thus can “travel safely and freely within the European Union”.
It comes as a digital or paper proof that a person has either:
– been vaccinated against Covid-19
– received a Covid-19 negative test result; the PCR-test should be taken maximum 72 hours before departure and a rapid antigen test, 48 hours
– recovered from Covid-19; the certificate is valid after 11 days after the test confirming you recovered and are covid-free and is valid for 180 days.
Important: children under 6 do not need a Covid-19 certificate to travel. All the rest of people need one to present a certificate proving one of the three conditions above.
Do you live in Belgium?
Belgian residents can easily download the application (both for iOS and Android) at www.covidsafe.be to have the EU Digital Covid Certificate in their mobile phone.
If you are not fond of apps, you can also request a paper document. In this case, you should call your region helpdesk service to order one:
– Flanders: please call 078 78 78 50
– Wallonia: please call 071 31 34 93
– Brussels-Capital: please call 02 214 19 19
What happens with my data?
The certificate complies with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It includes traveller’s name, birthdate, vaccination details, PCR negative test or recovery from the virus, issuing date and the QR code. No other personal health information is shared with the authorities and no country is allowed to store this data. Besides, there is no EU central database to gather passengers’ health data.