Slovakia launches OverPass app

The mobile application is intended for service providers who check the immunity status of clients or participants

The state-run Slovensko IT company has released a long-awaited tool: the OverPass app. The mobile application is intended for service providers who need to verify the authenticity and validity of the digital version of the Covid certificate carried by customers or event participants.

Three choices

According to the recently revamped, vaccination-based Covid automat system, the owners of facilities and event organisers in districts other than the green tier can choose from three admittance options. They can let everybody in (including the untested and unvaccinated); request proof of completed vaccination cycle, negative test result or recovery from Covid-19 (so-called OTP arrangement); or allow entry only to the fully vaccinated.

Understandably, the OverPass app is important for those service providers who choose the latter two options but have so far been giving the certificates (in electronic or paper form) just a glance. The app can run only on Android phones for the time being and can be downloaded from the site of Slovensko IT and Google Play Store.

Stricter restrictions in orange-tier districts

Currently, there are 12 districts in the orange tier: Banská Štiavnica, Gelnica, Kežmarok, Košice I-IV, Levoča, Poprad, Spišská Nová Ves, Stropkov, and Vranov nad Topľou. Most of them are in eastern Slovakia, which has the lowest rate of fully vaccinated people, informs the Slovak Spectator.

The rules in orange-tier districts are more stringent than those applied in the green tier. If restaurant owners decide to let everybody in, they can keep only their outdoor terraces open. Otherwise, restaurant goers need to show a GreenPass, proof of a negative test result or recovery from Covid-19.

Mask-wearing is mandatory inside buildings and also at mass events held both indoors and outdoors. There are also some limits in shops, irrespective of their admittance policy. For example, customer flows must be regulated so that there is only one person per 15 square metres at a time.  

Regarding events, there is no limit on the venue capacity when only fully vaccinated people attend. In the case of OTP arrangements, there are caps of 5,000 people outdoors and 2,500 indoors. For events without immunity checks, the attendance limit is even lower - 1,000 people outdoors and 500 people indoors.

All family certificates in one place

More than half a million (504,000) Slovaks have already downloaded the GreenPass app, Slovensko IT announced on its Facebook page. The application is designed to help  families keep all of their EU Digital Covid Certificates in one place, whether they are in electronic form or on paper, and present the proof of immunity where it is required, for example at mass events or border control.

The application can be downloaded from the site of the developer and also from Google Play Store (for Android users) and the App Store (for phones running on iOs). Users of Huawei devices have not been left behind, as they will find a version of the application on the Huawei App Gallery.