The key points
- New feature in the old app
- Forged certificates
- One month trial then decision on obligation
France takes a first step towards a health “passport” pending the decisions of the European Union. From Monday the TousAntiCovid application will have a new function: it will allow you to download the results of PCR or antigenic tests and, soon, also vaccine certificates in order to facilitate travel. Even if for now, explained the office of Cédric O, Undersecretary for Digital, “there are no new obligations but only a new functionality to simplify the crossing of borders”. A first experimentation will take place on flights to Corsica and overseas territories.
New feature in the old app
From June 2020 to mid-April 2021, the TousAntiCovid app had been downloaded by 14.7 million people and had notified the risk of exposure to Covid-19 at over 171 thousand. “France – said Cédric O – is the first country to make this possibility of certification of anti-Covid-19 tests available to citizens”. From Monday, the results of the diagnostic tests will be able to be entered and soon also the certificates of vaccination. The insertion of the tests will take place through a QR code that will be retrieved from the laboratory and can be integrated into the app through a technology already in use by the French public administration for the certification of its documents. But even those who do not want to go through the app can use the same QR code on paper.
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Forged certificates
One of the objectives of the integration of tests and certificates in the app, explains Franceinfo, is the elimination of possible fraud by travelers in border controls. In fact, in recent months there has been an increase in test falsifications. Furthermore, the speed of reading by the authorities will facilitate the crossing of borders.
One month trial, then decision on obligation
The new function will remain on trial for about a month starting from Monday, then in the second half of May, the Government will decide whether to make it mandatory. Vaccination certificates, on the other hand, can be integrated into the app starting from 29 April. In this way, the newspaper Le Monde stressed, France “lays the foundations for a future health passport”. The newspaper stressed that the electronic pass initially limited “to the control of certain air travel” could then be “extended to concerts and festivals”.