DNA Explainer: Planning to travel to Europe? Know what is EU's new 'vaccine passport'

India manufactured vaccines like SII's Covishield and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin have not been included by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for its 'vaccine passport' programme that allows free movement of people in and out of Europe. The EU Digital COVID Certificate or the 'Green Passport' as it is popularly known, facilitates freedom of travel for the public during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new vaccine passport system has come into effect across European Union (EU) from July 1, 2021. However, with Covishield and Covaxin not included in the list, in India, there have been apprehensions that people who took Covishield and Covaxin jabs are unlikely to be eligible to travel to the European Union member states under its 'Green Pass' scheme.

However, the individual member states have the flexibility to also accept vaccines that have been authorised at the national level or by the World Health Organisation.

Following India's diplomatic intervention, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Greece, Ireland, Spain and Estonia have approved India's Covishield vaccine. Apart from these countries, Switzerland and Iceland have recognized Covishield. The European country Estonia has also recognized India's Covaxin.

This means that after taking Covishield and Covaxin vaccines, those travelling from India to these nine countries will be exempted from quarantine.

But, here we try to understand the EU's new 'vaccine passport' system and how it works. We also look into the list of vaccines that have been included in the EMA list. So let's understand the whole process.

What is the 'Green Passport' scheme

Under its 'Green Passport' scheme, the European Union's Digital COVID certificate framework is to facilitate free movement during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As per this framework, persons who have taken vaccines authorised by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) will be exempted from travel restrictions within the EU.

The certificate includes information such as name, date of birth, date of issuance, the name of the vaccine or the details of the negative test result or recovery from COVID-19.

However, the individual member states have the flexibility to also accept vaccines that have been authorised at the national level or by the World Health Organisation.

The EU Digital COVID certificate or 'Green Pass' will be mandatory to travel to European countries and the document will serve as proof that a person is vaccinated against COVID-19.

At present, the EU countries accept only the vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which are Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Janssen.

How the 'Green Passport' works

National authorities are in charge of the programme and the document can be issued by test centres or health authorities, or directly via an eHealth portal.

The certificate has a QR code that can be scanned and it is available in both digital and paper formats.

The certificate contains a digital signature which is verified when the QR code is scanned.

Each issuing body has its own digital signature key, all of which are stored in a secure database in each country.

The European Commission has designed a gateway through which all the signatures can be verified across the EU.

Vaccines approved by EMA for the purpose

The EMA list only includes four vaccines as of now - Vaxzevria (Oxford-AstraZeneca), Comirnaty (Pfizer-BioNTech), Spikevax (Moderna) and Janssen (Johnson & Johnson).

None of the three vaccines which have been approved for use in India to date - Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik V feature on the list.