Between local experiments and European proposals, here’s how far the Green Pass has come to travel and move around safely at the time of Covid-19.
The Digital Green Certificate will be the “Green Pass” to move between Regions in Italy and travel in Europe. It’s not there yet, but there are the first guidelines (drawn up by Europe) and some experiments are already underway in Italy. Obviously it will also be digital and will certify the immunity from Covid-19 of the European citizen, obtained through vaccination or recovery from the disease.
The certificate, for what is the current orientation of our government and many European governments, you can ask already after receiving the first dose of vaccine and will be part of the electronic health record of those who ask for it. In fact, the certificates will be of two types: one for the vaccinated, lasting six months, and the one issued after the swab, which will last only 48 hours and will serve mainly for short business trips or to attend outdoor events such as art shows or soccer games at the stadium. It is not to be excluded that the Green Pass will also be required to go to restaurants or other public places. It’s clear, then, that the Digital Green Certificate could be our pass for the next few months.
Digital Green Certificate: the European guidelines
On March 17, 2021, the European Commission made official its proposal for a Digital Green Certificate, from which we can guess what the national Green Passes will look like, including the Italian one.
The EU wants a digital certificate with a QR and a digital signature, to prevent forgery. In Italia, quindi, è probabile che servirà lo SPID o la CIE per ottenere il pass (qui le informazioni su come fare lo SPID gratis).
Al momento del controllo del certificato, in occasione di un viaggio o di un evento che lo richiederà, verrà scansionato il QR e verificata la firma digitale per accertare che il certificato sia valido e appartenente a quella persona.
I certificati, quindi, avranno una firma digitale ed essa sarà generata dalla struttura che ha rilasciato il pass (ad esempio un ospedale, o un ambulatorio), e tutte le chiavi verranno conservate in una banca dati sicura nazionale.
A livello europeo, invece, la Commissione creerà un “gateway“, cioè un sistema di interscambio che permetterà di verificare le chiavi generate in ogni Paese anche in un altro Stato membro UE. So an Italian will be able to travel to France or Germany, for example, by showing the Italian Green Pass at the airport.
All this will need a robust software infrastructure, and the European Commission will help member states develop it so that the system is uniform across Europe.
Digital Green Certificate: the privacy issue
Clearly, the Green Pass for Covid-19 will contain within it sensitive data and information that needs to be protected, such as first and last name, date of birth, date of issuance and, most importantly, whether the citizen has been vaccinated, has only had a test or has become ill and recovered.
The European Commission, for this reason, asks that the countries visited by the foreign citizen do not keep copies of these data, but record only the certificate number while all health data will be kept in the member state that issued the Green Pass.
Digital Green Certificate: when it arrives
In Italy, the first experiments of Digital Green Certificate are already underway, but they should not be confused with the European one we have been talking about so far, nor with the national one that has not arrived yet.
The Autonomous Province of Bolzano, for example, is creating its own local certificate that will be used to enter restaurants or attend events and will be managed through a smartphone app.
In Lazio, on the other hand, upon completion of the vaccination cycle the regional health authorities issue a certificate and enter it directly into the vaccinated person’s electronic health record. The certificate includes biographical data, the dates on which the vaccine was administered and also which type of vaccine. The pass can be scanned via QR.
To get the European Vaccine Passport, however, you’ll have to wait until the summer, when the Commission will create a digital infrastructure for authenticating certificates across member states and member states will adapt their national Green Passes so they can talk to this system.