Half a million Covid access passes invalid from Friday

About 500,000 Netherlands residents will no longer have a green tick on their coronavirus access pass from Friday, Health Minister Ernst Kuipers said. They haven't had a booster shot yet, and the validity period of their Covid-19 vaccination certificate is coming to an end.

From this month, vaccination certificates are only valid for 270 days - in line with the European travel passes. The Ministry of Public Health calculated that "up to 540,000" people's access passes will expire on Friday based on how many people had their vaccinations over 270 days ago, the number of booster shots administered, and the number of people who tested positive for Covid-19, Kuipers wrote on Monday in response to parliamentary questions.

Kuipers expects that the shorter validity period of access passes will encourage more people to get the booster shot. "The GGDs have sufficient capacity to give everyone in the Netherlands a booster shot," he said.

The Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, will debate the extension of the temporary coronavirus law on Tuesday. This is the fourth time the law has been extended. Parliamentarians will also discuss the validity period of vaccination certificates and recovery certificates (180 days).