Edith Staufen was one of the first to have her vaccination status confirmed with a QR code in a pharmacy in June last year.

This made the digital proof of their three vaccinations against the coronavirus in the CovPass app a reliable companion when visiting restaurants and events and when traveling to meet each of the following 2G or 3G rules.

Monica Ganster

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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The Frankfurt native was all the more irritated when she received a notification on her smartphone that the certificate would expire in a few weeks.

According to the website of the Federal Ministry of Health, the digital vaccination certificate has an expiry date for technical reasons - it is no longer valid exactly one year after the certificate was issued.

Four weeks in advance, the app draws attention to the upcoming deadline.

The good news: Proof of vaccination protection is not affected.

In the European Union, all persons with boosters are considered to be permanently vaccinated.

So nobody has to go looking for a fourth vaccination because the certificate has expired - which is currently only recommended by the Standing Vaccination Commission for people who live or are cared for in a nursing facility,

With just a few clicks to the new certificate

The Robert Koch Institute promises that an updated version of the CovPass app will be available in the app stores in the next few weeks.

After the update, users should be able to renew the digital vaccination certificate themselves with just a few clicks.

The Corona-Warn-App should also receive an update in the next few weeks, the Robert Koch Institute announced on request.

The

coronawarn.app website

will inform you when the new version will be available in the app stores.

In the case of Edith Staufen, who had already planned a short vacation at the end of June, the nervousness is increasing as to whether the update of her vaccination certificate will be available in time.

In order to be able to travel, she needs the digital proof to work.

In these exceptional cases, the pharmacies offer a way out, which can use the data in a user's CovPass app to issue a new QR code, which can then be read in as a new certificate.

However, since the technical solution to the problem is imminent, pharmacists should check in individual cases whether they can simply wait for the certificate to be extended, according to the Ministry of Health.

However, travelers who do not have full vaccination protection must pay attention to the applicable EU rule that a double vaccination (basic immunization) is only valid for a uniform period of 270 days.

According to this, travelers without a booster vaccination when entering other EU countries are classified as unvaccinated.

With the third vaccination, the certificate is valid without time limit.

For children and young people, however, the certificate of basic immunization is also valid indefinitely.