Coronavirus: in two months, Uruguay will activate the health passport

MONTEVIDEO.- In a “horizon” of two months, the Ministry of Tourism of Uruguay will have an active system of health passport, confirmed to the newspaper El País Remo Monzeglio, undersecretary of the portfolio. However, he clarified that the fact it is not linked to the date of full opening of the borders, ended by the pandemic of coronavirus.

What is it about? The International Air Transport Association (HERE IT IS) implemented a Travel Pass, a platform that brings together information on sanitary requirements to enter different countries, laboratories authorized to issue PCR certificates, among others. The document is a certificate considered in the tourism sector as the key to the return of pre-pandemic levels of air connectivity.

At the local level, work is underway to implement the system. Monzeglio told El País that there is a tranquility in which Uruguay could be one of the first countries to apply it. The idea is that the Travel Pass is connected to the app CoronavirusUY, which created the Agency for Electronic Government and the Information and Knowledge Society (Agesic).

Monzegliohe explained to the newspaper The observer that from next June there will be a “Gradual” opening of flights and there will be “more people” eager to travel. However, Uruguay’s connectivity numbers also depend on the vaccination rate of countries in the region and in this regard Latin America is not performing well.

How will it work? Agesic will send the passenger information to the Travel Pass platform so that the airline has access to the data, the undersecretary explained.

Thus, when a person wishes to travel, he goes to Carrasco airport with his passport and your Travel Pass where all health information will be.

Monzeglio believes that this technology “has come to stay” because, in addition, it meets other health needs beyond Covid-19, such as the yellow fever vaccine.

In addition, the official said that Carrasco Airport and the Eastern Point they have the technology to implement the system.

In the top 10 countries that have a higher percentage of people vaccinated with at least one dose against the coronavirus, there are only two countries in the region: Chile (with 40% of the population) and Uruguay (with 31%). based on April 18 data from Our World in Data.

In Uruguay, more than a million people received at least the first dose, out of more than 3.5 million inhabitants. “Two months is the minimum target” for the gradual restart of connectivity, Monzeglio said in statements to the local press.

Although the Uruguayan government is being cautious, there are already positive signs on this issue. For example, the Spanish airline Iberia has decided to increase the frequency of flights to Uruguay from June. However, Monzeglio said he had doubts “if there will be” audiences for Iberia’s five weekly frequencies immediately. The Spanish airline chose Uruguay as the first destination to test the health passport on a flight that arrived from Madrid to Montevideo. April 10.

As Uruguay seek to plan for a gradual return to normalcy, the epidemiological situation is still serious and, therefore, it maintains restrictions. In total, the country has already recorded just over 167,000 cases and 1971 deaths from the coronavirus.

El País / GDA newspaper and Télam agency

THE NATION