Will your clients need a COVID booster shot to travel overseas?

Senior man traveling in the times of the coronavirus pandemic. He is checking in on the flight as the handling agent is looking at the covid passport.

By Alexandra Coulton

Counting down the days until you and your clients can use your vaccine certificate to get on the next flight out of here?

Well, there may be one final hurdle to jump, because some European countries have already put an expiry date on COVID vaccinations.

Austria and Croatia have already jumped on the bandwagon, according to Forbes, and if more destinations follow suit, travellers may need to provide proof of when they were vaccinated and, in some cases, get a COVID-19 booster shot.

Last month, Croatia became the first country to set a “maximum validity period” on COVID-19 jabs, requiring arrivals from other countries to show proof of two doses of an approved vaccine no older than 270 days, according to a government announcement.

Travellers with “expired” vaccines will be required to provide a negative PCR test upon arrival and self isolate until they receive a result.

On 15 August, Austria followed suit.

“The vaccine certificate is valid for 270 days after the second dose for two-dose vaccines,” said a notice on Austria’s tourism website.

“In people with a past infection and one vaccination, it is valid for 270 days after that one dose. For vaccines that require only one dose, it is valid from the twenty-second day for 270 days from vaccination.”

According to the Australian Department of Health, it is not yet known how long the protection of the COVID-19 vaccine will last.

However, The Conversation has reported that a vaccine similar to AstraZeneca against a related coronavirus was still effective after 12 months.

For Pfizer and Moderna, which are based on mRNA technology, research has shown it was still effective at six months, but again, The Conversation points out, there is still not enough data this early in the game.

Featured image source: iStock/lechatnoir

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Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

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