Sharjah24 – AFP: The European Union is poised to limit the validity of vaccine recognition in its EU Covid certificate to nine months, its executive said on Tuesday, in a bid to encourage boosters.
The European Commission said in a statement it has adopted "a binding acceptance period of nine months (precisely 270 days) of vaccination certificates for the purposes of intra-EU travel", to come into force from February 1.
The measure -- which needs approval of EU member states to come into effect -- comes as the bloc races to get booster jabs into arms under the shadow of the highly infectious Omicron variant.
Several EU countries had already announced go-it-alone measures that would soon consider double-jabbed people no longer "fully vaccinated" unless they also got a booster shot.
The EU Covid certificate has become a standard in the EU and dozens of non-EU countries for showing the bearer is immune to or free of Covid, notably by recording the vaccination status.
It is also used by many EU countries domestically as a pass for people to be allowed into venues such as restaurants and entertainment or sporting events.
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