Thread by @jonworth

So you are someone fully vaccinated in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 or Northern Ireland, and you want to travel to 🇪🇺 🇨🇭 🇳🇴 or 🇮🇸

And you have heard of the EU Digital COVID Certificate and you want to get one

This 🧵 explains what we know currently

Important: there is a difference between proving your vaccination status when *entering a country* and proving your status *once you are inside* that country

As someone vaccinated 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 or NI you can GET INTO 🇪🇺 countries by proving your vaccine status at the border

The question then is what happens after that

Like it or not many 🇪🇺 countries are restricting access to things (museums, libraries etc.) for unvaccinated

This is where the EU Digital COVID Certificate comes in

Anyone vaccinated in any 🇪🇺 country, or in🇨🇭 🇳🇴 or 🇮🇸 is issued with a EU Digital COVID Certificate

This can be imported into mobile apps that can be used to prove your vaccine status

The owner of a venue - a library for example - then scans your mobile app with their verifier app, and if it verifies, in you go

It it doesn't... then it gets complicated

And that's the crux of the problem

Read on...

If you're vaccinated in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 or NI, what are your options?

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Get your NHS COVID Pass letter
nhs.uk/conditions/cor…

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Get your proof here
gov.wales/get-nhs-covid-…

NI Certificate system
nidirect.gov.uk/services/coron…

Each of these documents has a QR code on it that can be scanned by EU countries' COVID apps

It doesn't matter which one you use - they all work in the same way, and you do not even have to use the one from the country you're travelling to

Here are a few - try any of these

🇩🇪 Corona-Warn-App
🤖 play.google.com/store/apps/det…
iOS apps.apple.com/de/app/corona-…

🇫🇷 TousAntiCovid
🤖 play.google.com/store/apps/det…
iOS apps.apple.com/us/app/tousant…

🇮🇪 COVID Tracker Ireland
🤖 play.google.com/store/apps/det…
iOS apps.apple.com/de/app/covid-t…

🚨 BUT THEN THE PROBLEM 🚨

Because 🇬🇧 has not joined the EU Digital COVID Certificate scheme, these NHS QR codes *import* into the apps...

... but they DO NOT VERIFY

The principle here is that there are 2 types of apps

The first (like Corona-Warn-App, or TousAntiCovid) are for *people* - a kind of vaccine certificate wallet

The second type (like TousAntiCovid Verif) are for venues to check people's wallets when entering

Think back to the employee at the library

In 🇫🇷 s/he would be using the *separate* TousAntiCovid Verif app to check people entering - scanning a NHS QR code will show up as "Invalid" - even if that NHS code is in the French TousAntiCovid app 🤪

You can try this yourself

You can download the TousAntiCovid Verif app
🤖 play.google.com/store/apps/det…
iOS apps.apple.com/fr/app/tousant…

And then scan the TousAntiCovid QR with that (you might need 2 phones, or a printout instead, to accomplish this)

You *might* be able to persuade the library or museum employee to let you in anyway - by demonstrating you have paperwork, stating you were vaccinated outside the EU etc. - but *there is no guarantee* this will let you into the venue

It'd depend on that person's discretion

So what else can you do?

In both 🇫🇷 & 🇩🇪 (please reply if this works elsewhere too!) pharmacies can issue you a EU Digital COVID Certificate - one that verifies! - if they are sure of your vaccinated status

* This can also work for those from other places - e.g. 🇺🇸 *

Take your NHS documentation - and importantly details of which doses you received, when, and the batch numbers - to a pharmacy, and ask them nicely, and they *might* issue you a certificate

I've checked this with dozens of people, and there's about a 50-50 success rate...

So to conclude, there are 2 partial solutions - via apps, and via pharmacists

If you are someone fully vaccinated in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 or NI wanting to travel:
- get your QR codes and import them into an app (but knowing this might not work for all venues)
* AND *
- try the pharmacy route

NOTE: this thread does not apply to those vaccinated in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 as no suitable QR codes are issued by NHS Scotland

This thread also does not apply for travels *from* EU *to* UK - I am no specialist on the rules for that direction!

This is all a mess. It could all be so much easier. 🇬🇧 could join the 🇪🇺 scheme (as 🇨🇭 has) and be done with it... But 🤷‍♂️ politics and Johnson.

For now this is the best you can do.

/ends

🆕 There's now a system in place in 🇳🇱 to get an EU Digital COVID Certificate, but it involves you... having to travel to Utrecht! Thanks @Thomas06901916

https://twitter.com/Thomas06901916/status/1420304750726295553

🆕 One tweet above is poorly phrased - due to pandemic in 🇬🇧, travel to *all* 🇪🇺 countries and 🇨🇭🇳🇴🇮🇸 is not universally allowed, even for those vaccinated - CHECK where you're going first!

But whether you have a QR code from NHS or *in no case central to being let in or not*

Also *please* don't reply to this saying "oh but this news story says it does work!" Yeah, I've read loads. And I'm yet to see *any* piece get this all right - esp. about the verification step. That's why I wrote this thread!