Holidaymakers will be able to access their COVID test results, vaccines and proof they’ve recovered from the virus on an updated version of the NHS app.
And the app is almost ready to be integrated into the EU’s digital green pass, due to be launched in July, which will make travelling to European countries easier, according to The Telegraph.
The NHS app, which has been used by holidaymakers since May as a ‘COVID Pass’ to show proof they’ve had both jabs of a COVID vaccine, is now able to include results of private COVID tests, it said.
It quoted a ‘senior industry source’ saying the app is ‘technically ready’ to be integrated into the EU database, but they admitted private test providers were struggling to register test results quick enough. Once those issues are resolved, it said ‘all that is required is for the EU to allow non-EU countries to be integrated’.
A European Commission spokesman said talks on the UK’s participation in the green pass system were ‘progressing well’, adding: “The talks are ongoing at the technical level and going in the right direction. This is because the technical system architecture of the EU and the UK are aligned.”
Meanwhile, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps is refusing to confirm plans for double vaccinated holidaymakers to skip quarantine when returning from amber countries by August.
He said yesterday that it would require time to work through what he described as a ‘complicated’ policy, which will have to include a testing regime for unvaccinated children.
Additionally, Mr Shapps raised concerns about excluding young people who might not be fully vaccinated before the end of the summer and also the half a million or so people who can’t be vaccinated for medical reasons. However, he said he will put a proposal to the House of Commons before MPs break up for the summer on 22 July, indicating that there would be a phased approach, starting with UK citizens.
