Bulgaria is ready for the introduction of the European digital green certificate

Bulgaria is fully ready to introduce the European digital green vaccination certificate against COVID-19. This became possible after the National System Integrator "Information Services" conducted successful tests and completed the integration of the Bulgarian system with the system of the European Commission. This means that the Bulgarian certificates are compatible with those issued by the systems of other EU countries.

According to the regulation, the certificate enters into force on July 1, 2021. The central system is expected to start operating on 1 June, which will allow technically prepared Member States to issue green certificates as early as next month. The green certificate is expected to make travel in European countries much easier.

Information Services states that the Bulgarian document complies with all the recommendations of the expert council of the European Commission E-Health Network. By regulation, the digital green certificate is free-of-charge. The European Commission defines three versions of the document - for the presence of a completed vaccination cycle with one of the EC-approved vaccines against COVID-19; a negative test result or that a person recovered from Covid-19. The three options contain a special QR code through which the authorized authorities in the EU countries will be able to check its validity.

The vaccination certificate shall contain information on the names and dates of birth of the vaccinated person, the code of the International Classification of Medicinal Products, the trade name of the product, the manufacturer, the batch, the date of vaccination, the country of administration, the vaccination centre and other mandatory attributes.

The negative test result document describes the type of test, the date of testing, the results, the manufacturer, the laboratory that performed the test, and the recovery from Covid-19 certificate includes information about the date of the first positive test for COVID-19 and the validity. of the certificate.

It is important to note that according to the requirements of the EC, the validity of the certificate reflecting recovery from Covid-19 is not more than 180 days after the first positive test result. Initially, only vaccination certificates will be issued, and the documents with a proof for recovery and a negative test result are expected to take effect after mid-June.

The European green certificate will be part of the patient's electronic medical record. Every Bulgarian citizen has access to his / her file through the health information portal of the National Health Insurance Fund www.his.bg through a qualified electronic signature (QES) and has access to it anywhere in the world, at any time. The system developed by Information Services will automatically re-generate all certificates issued so far in the new European format when the regulation enters into force.

The old certificates will continue to be valid on the territory of Bulgaria, with a grace period until August 12, 2021, in order to avoid the accumulation of people for re-issuance. Information Services experts are currently developing a mobile application that will allow health certificate holders to have them on their mobile phone or tablet without having to print them out on paper and wait in front of GPs offices or vaccination centres for issuing the document. This will make it much easier for citizens to travel.