Switzerland prepares to remove pandemic restrictions from vaccinated citizens with Covid certificates

The Swiss government has announced Covid-19 certificates will be issued to people who’ve been vaccinated, tested negative or recently recovered from infection, to allow officials to begin lifting restrictions on some citizens.

The certificates, which will either be provided via hard copy or electronic format, are expected to be distributed from next week. They will be given to people who are deemed to be at a low risk of transmitting Covid after being vaccinated, testing negative or having received temporary immunity after recently recovering from the virus.

While the government is still ironing out the full details of the Covid certificate scheme, it is expected that all members of the general public who are eligible to receive the document will do so by the end of June.

The legal basis for the certificate scheme will come into effect on Monday, with the government working to ensure it meets European and digital privacy requirements so that any related app could be available through the online stores of Google and Apple.

Switzerland formally entered the second stage of its exit from Covid restrictions at the end of May, with restaurants now permitted to have guests indoors and large private gatherings of up to 30 people given the green light. The easing of health curbs came after data showed Covid infections and fatalities have fallen significantly in the country.

The Swedish health minister, Alain Berset, told local media recently that the government hopes the country will have fully reopened domestically by August, assuming the vaccination programme continues unimpeded.

Switzerland is not the first European nation to implement a Covid passport scheme, with Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Greece and Poland having launched similar documents for their own citizens on June 1, as part of an EU-wide move to reopen countries and their borders.

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