The COVID vaccination certificates of minors will remain valid for an unspecified term
The vaccination certificates of individuals under the age of 18 now remain valid for an unspecified term for the purposes of border crossing based on a decision of the European Commission. The Estonian government approved the amendment today. Until now, the certificates of minors remained valid for 15 months.
‘In some European countries, booster shots are not yet available for minors and Estonian experts also currently primarily recommend booster shots for those young people who are at a higher risk of a severe COVID case. Thus, a uniform decision was required in Europe to prevent a situation in which young people can no longer move freely because their certificates have expired,’ explained Minister of Health and Labour Tanel Kiik.
If a young person reaches adulthood shortly after vaccination, their certificate will remain valid for 270 days after the last injection. TEHIK has developed a solution for the certificate checking application which calculates the individual’s age based on the date of birth on the certificate and, if the individual is a minor, displays for the individual checking the certificate that the certificate remains valid for an unspecified term.
Travellers should still keep in mind, though, that EU countries may establish separate national validity periods for the certificates. It would be a good idea to check this information on the ‘Reisi Targalt’ website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before travelling.
If the period between two infection cases is longer than sixty days, the recovery certificate can be generated based on the latest positive test result
The Government also decided that for an individual to be deemed to have recovered from COVID-19 twice, the gap between the two infection cases must be at least sixty days.
This means that as of 12 April, it will be possible to generate a recovery certificate based on the latest recovery if the gap between the two positive test results which confirm having been infected is at least sixty days. Until now, individuals who had been infected several times were unable to generate new certificates if they tested positive for the second time within 180 days after the first positive test result.
The procedure was amended based on a recommendation of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
‘While repeat cases within six months occurred very rarely before, the Omicron wave has shown that individuals may also get infected with COVID several times at relatively short intervals. The sixty days is an agreement which is based on the new reality of significantly shorter intervals of people getting infected compared to the situation before,’ explained Minister Kiik.
Repeat positive tests given within the space of sixty days are treated as one infection case for the purposes of the certificates.
The Government Communication Unit will publish the order and the explanatory memorandum on the website kriis.ee
