Vaccine passport may be a reality in June, opening doors to travel

The cabinet will probably have taken a decision about the introduction of some sort of vaccine passport by early June, giving parliament three weeks for debate, health minister Hugo de Jonge has told MPs.

The European Commission has set June 21 as a target date for the introduction of a passport, and then six weeks to organize it. However this, says De Jonge, is too slow given the Dutch school holidays start in early July.

MPs earlier called on De Jonge not to wait until the summer to put the wheels in motion.

The aim of the passport is to allow people to travel to other EU countries and attend events in the Netherlands without a negative coronavirus test. Both Spain and France have said they plan to let in people who have been vaccinated from June.

Meanwhile, plans to make quarantine compulsory for people returning from high risk countries are now unlikely to come into effect until June as well, the Telegraaf reported.

Figures published on Tuesday showed only around one in five people took the quarantine requirement seriously and seven in 10 still went to the shops.

The vaccine passport may also make quarantine unnecessary, the paper said.