20.10.2021
GREEN CERTIFICATES - WHAT WE NEED TO KNOW
From Thursday, October 21, 2021, almost all public life in Bulgaria, excluding schools and public administration, introduces green certificates for employees, visitors and customers.
What do we need to know about the new measures?
Where will you enter with a green certificate?
Access with a green certificate is introduced for congress-conference events, seminars, music and other festivals, dance schools and other group classes for adults, visits to museums, galleries, cinemas, theaters, circus performances, concerts, fitness centers, gyms, swimming swimming pools, restaurants and entertainment, gambling halls and casinos, visits to malls, shops with an area of over 300 square meters, bazaars and indoor exhibitions, organized excursions and group visits to tourist sites. The requirement applies to both visitors and employees of these sites. All employees of medical institutions, hospices and homes for the elderly must also have a green certificate. It is also required for face-to-face activities of students in higher education.
Where will a green certificate not be requested?
The green certificate will not be required for public transport, grocery stores, pharmacies, banks. It will not be used in schools either for teachers or children. Access to the administration will also take place without a green certificate, so as not to deprive citizens of administrative services.
Access to drugstores, opticians, pet stores, postal and courier service providers, insurers, payment service providers and telecommunications operators' offices remains free, whether they are stand-alone or located in malls. Markets also operate without a certificate.
What closes?
There are activities that will not work even with a green certificate. These are the centers for support of personal development, children's centers, clubs and others, providing organized group services for children. An exception is allowed only for special educational support centers. Teambuilding and other organized group events in work teams are also stopped. Indoor team sports are suspended, with the exception of trainings and competitions for registered athletes at licensed sports federations. Visits to medical establishments are suspended, with the exception of visits to patients in the terminal stage, as well as visits to specialized institutions for the provision of social services and those for residential-type social services for children and adults. Private gatherings (baptisms, weddings, etc.) are allowed with the participation of no more than 15 people indoors and 30 people outdoors.
Who do not have health certificates valid?
Only children under the age of 18 are exempt from the health certificate requirement and are free to go anywhere but not to school. For example, the requirement to enter a mall only with an adult companion has been dropped, as has been the case with lighter measures so far. Initially, children under the age of 12 were exempted from certificates, as is the principle in other countries that apply such a measure.
When will the schools close?
According to the order of the Minister, all attendance classes are terminated in municipalities upon reaching a 14-day morbidity of over 750 per 100,000 within the respective municipality.
What is a green certificate?
The green certificate is a document for completed vaccination, proven illness or a negative test for COVID-19. All three circumstances must be registered in the national health information system.
How is a disease proven?
Illness is evidenced by a document certifying that the person has spent COVID-19 from 11 to 365 days earlier. The days are counted from the date of the test, which can now officially be not only a PCR but also an antigen test performed after December 1, 2020.
How long is the green certificate valid?
The vaccination certificate has no expiration date. In addition, the third dose has nothing to do with it - a certificate is also issued for it, but it is not among the official access documents.
For thousands of people, another question is more interesting - when a vaccination certificate becomes valid. Both before and now one can immediately download the document. Previously, however, it became valid 14 days after the final dose. This continues to apply to certificates that will be used for travel abroad. For the territory of the country, however, the vaccination certificate already enters into force immediately after the final dose. In addition, a first dose certificate will be recognized and will be valid for up to 30 days after its placement.
The certificate of illness is valid for one year.
The negative antigen test is valid for 48 hours and the PCR test for 72 hours.
How to get a green certificate?
The certificate can be obtained from the place of vaccination/testing or downloaded from the national health information system. The certificate can be provided in paper form or in a mobile application, as there is no Bulgarian application for storage of covid certificates, but there is an application for their verification. For the purposes of the order, the European digital certificates and the original documents from the personal doctor/laboratory will be valid, which can only be in Bulgarian. The system allows the document to be downloaded in pdf format and displayed through applications such as a wallet in a mobile phone.
Who has the right to take tests?
Only certain laboratories can enter data into the national information system. They are about 150, and the full list can be found on the website of the national health information system, on the website of the Ministry of Health and on the unified covid portal.
