Covid certificate planned for temporary period only

The planned Covid certificate, to be developed by the government, is meant to ease travel restrictions but also to allow more spectators to mass events. Keystone / Alexandra Wey

The Swiss government has specified more details about the use of a planned Covid-19 certificate, which is likely to be available by the end of June.

The document is meant for people who have been vaccinated against or recovered from the virus, or those who want to prove a recent negative PCR test.

Interior Minister Alain Berset stressed on Wednesday that the certificate, on paper or in a digital version, was not mandatory but that it could help Switzerland and its population come out of the Covid crisis.

The government, which is to confirm its plans next month, also said the certificate would be limited in time. The aim is to keep it “only as long as absolutely necessary,” Berset told a news conference on Wednesday.

Berset said various different practical usesExternal link of the certificate are foreseen.

The document will most likely be important for easing travel restrictions amid cooperation with similar plans at the European Union level. Currently visits abroad are complicated by mandatory anti-Covid tests and quarantine regulations.

Such a certificate will then also be necessary over the next few months to attend night clubs and mass events, thus gradually lifting restrictions for access to stadiums and concert halls.

Medication and vaccines

Also on Wednesday the government approved a credit of CHF50 million ($55.4 million) to boost the development and production of vaccines as well as anti-Covid drugs in Switzerland.

Berset said the government had mandated the interior, economics, and finance ministries to draft a policy paper for cooperation with industry, including a long-term provision of anti-Covid vaccines and drugs.

Last week, the government earmarked CHF1.2 billion to continue the current programme for the delivery of vaccines into next year.