Dilip Kuner
COVID passports will come into use from Saturday in the Balearics after the High Court gave them the green light.
Most hospitality and nightlife businesses will have to ask customers to produce a QR identification code that proves they have been vaccinated against COVID-19, or tested negative in a PCR test.
A phone or paper certificate will be needed to enter gyms, restaurants or bars, while a special app will be used by traders.
Hospitality businesses with a capacity of under 50 people will be exempt.
The COVID certificate has been required at nightclubs and nursing homes for some time, but will now be extended to a slew of other hospitality businesses and gyms.
The news comes after COVID cases in the Balearics tripled in just a month.
The cumulative 14-day incidence now stands at 266.4 cases per 100,000 compared to 92.8 on October 30.
As a result, the islands are officially at medium risk of infection and will be at high risk if the rate reaches 300 cases.
Menorca has already reached the high risk level, as its cumulative incidence is 428.7.
In the next few days, it could reach a 14-day cumulative incidence of more than 500 and become at extreme risk.
Mallorca (with an incidence of 264.4) and Ibiza (191.7) remain at medium risk, while Formentera (67.2) is at low risk.
Health chiefs have been urging the unvaccinated to get their jabs in a bid to ‘save Christmas’, The Olive Press reported some 90,000 expats on the islands had still not been vaccinated – an alarming half of the total numbers of people still unvaccinated.
READ ALSO:
- Half of anti-vaxxers in Spain’s Balearic Islands are expat residents
- EXPLAINER: Where you will need to show the COVID passport in the Costa Blanca and Valencia areas of Spain
