France starts testing digital COVID-19 Travel Certificate

France becomes the first country in the European Union to start testing digital COVID-19 Travel Certificate through a mobile application.

With this, France has become the first EU country to begin with the testing of the Digital Green Certificates, the establishment of which had previously been agreed to by the EU Member States.

The testing is to be carried out by France through the TousAntiCovid app.

What is TousAntiCovid?

Formerly known as StopCovid, TousAntiCovid is a contact tracing application.   Following a redesigning in October 2020, it is also an alert and information application providing useful information on the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic and the steps to be followed.   Contact tracing finds out anonymous contacts between different individuals, without recording their coordinates.   The objective of the application is to break the chain of transmission of the COVID-19 pandemic by quickly isolating individuals at risk.

While the application has been around since October 2020, the same has now been upgraded for storing negative COVID-19 test results on the mobile phones of the travelers.

In the beginning, the app is to be trialled – starting from April 29, 2021 – on flights to Corsica and the French overseas departments.

As per official statistics, as on March 10, 2021, the TousAntiCovid app had been downloaded more than 13.5 million times. Over 100,000 individuals have been notified so far as having been in prolonged and close contact with an individual carrying the virus.

As of now, through the app, a person that has been tested for the coronavirus – with either an antigen test or RT-PCR – will receive an email/SMS enabling them to connect to the SI-DEP, thereby retrieving a certificate in PDF format.

The PDF will include a QR code, among others.

Beginning April 29, 2021, it will become possible to retrieve the vaccination certificate through the Ameli health insurance portal.

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