COVID19: Grace period for CovScan launch

2584 views
1 min read

Introducing electronic scanning of the Safe Pass starts Monday voluntarily, to help businesses adapt to the new measure until 22 November when it will become mandatory, the Health Ministry said.

Cyprus’ Health Ministry has given a grace period for businesses to familiarise themselves with the application to electronically scan Safe Pass documents presented by customers to gain access to shops and restaurants.

A previous decision obliged businesses from 8 November to verify their clients’ Safe Pass validity using an application designed by the Deputy Ministry of Innovation, called CovScan.

However, the government has decided to allow businesses until 22 November, when it will be made mandatory.

Deputy Minister for Innovation Kyriacos Kokkinos said on Friday that discussion is underway for arrangements for those who do not have a smartphone and people over 65 who may not be tech-savvy.

Kokkinos said they had suggested to the health minister that these people could present their vaccination card instead.

The decision to electronically scan customers’ Safe Pass was not well received by all businesses, as small shopkeepers’ union POVEK said the government was transferring responsibility for checks onto them.

But general secretary of the retailers’ association PASYLE, Marios Antoniou, said the application was fairly easy to use and that implementing all measures was for the common good.

The Health Ministry said that more details on the implementation of the CovScan would be delivered in the coming days.