Eight Spanish regions implement mandatory use of COVID-19 pass

In a last-minute effort to “save Christmas” amid rising COVID-19 cases, eight Spanish regions have made COVID digital certificates mandatory. EURACTIV’s partner EFE reported.

The “COVID-19 pass”, which can be downloaded via a specific “app” in each of the 17 Spanish regions, who have their own healthcare systems, certifies whether the bearer has been vaccinated, has recently recovered from an infection, or has been tested for the virus, EFE reported.

It will be mandatory to enter hospitals, nursing homes, bars, restaurants and venues with a capacity of around fifty people.

But this extraordinary measure, taken by the Spanish health ministry in coordination with all the regions – and after a green light from the Spanish High Court – was not well received by everyone in the Iberian country.

On Saturday, some 1,300 people, according to local police sources, demonstrated in Barcelona’s city centre against the COVID-19 pass, EFE reported.

Demonstrators chanted slogans such as “it’s not a pandemic, it’s a dictatorship”, “it’s not for your health, it’s for control,” and “we are not afraid”.

Meanwhile, hundreds of doctors and nurses demonstrated on Saturday in Madrid’s city centre, protesting against their precarious labour conditions, EFE reported.

Many of them have been working since the pandemic started in March 2020 on so-called temporary “COVID-contracts”, designed to reinforce Spain’s State Health Care System (SNS) during the health emergency, but the government did not extend them afterwards.

The “COVID-19 passport” is mandatory so far in Galicia, Navarre, Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, and Murcia, and could be in force soon in other regions in the coming days, Spanish media have reported.

The new health measure was deemed necessary after the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose, with hospitals under more significant pressure.

The COVID 14-day incidence rate now stands at 217 cases per 100,000 inhabitants – a rise of 8.6 points last week, the Spanish Health ministry reported.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.EURACTIV.es)