Restaurants may be required to check the infection-free status of visitors to Covid-19, according to the Czech Health Minister, Adam Vojtěch (ANO). With whom he has held discussions, their representatives have expressed interest in doing so, and some have indicated that they will do so freely.
It will be easier with a smartphone app to save and check the credentials, he stated during a news conference to announce it today. Until this, having a negative test, a certificate of illness, or having completed vaccines was required for restaurant clients.
Restaurants were permitted to open outdoor seating beginning on May 17 and inside seating starting on May 31. Initially, it was stated that upon admittance, a negative test or other confirmation of infection-free status would be required. Businesses reacted angrily, claiming that there was no legal basis for executing such a document or excluding a visitor from the institution.
After consulting with the chief hygienist, Pavla Svrčinová, representatives of the catering sector decided that, rather than conducting coronavirus tests, it would be sufficient to display a notice in restaurants stating that only visitors who met the Health Ministry’s requirements would be served. As a result, it was the clients, not the establishment operators, who bore accountability.
According to the minister, the restorators were concerned that they would be required to verify people’s extensive paper documentation for immunizations or tests. He claimed that the newly introduced Tečka mobile app, which allows users to keep a vaccination certificate, proof of illness, or a negative test, will check for infection-free status quickly and straightforward.
According to Vojtěch, more than 280,000 people downloaded the Tečka app to preserve the certificate on the first day. It stores the issued certificate passively or is actively linked to the Institute of Health Information and Statistics (IHIS) database and automatically updates itself with the results of new tests or vaccines delivered. However, in addition to the app, a paper document can be used to demonstrate an infection-free status.