Covid-19: Travellers fear vaccine passports will come too late

Would-be travellers due to fly out in the coming days fear their Covid passports will come too late for their trip.

The CovidCert NI app for people travelling outside of the UK went live last week.

The Department of Health (DoH) said the system went offline on Tuesday evening due to a technical problem.

But applicants have said their calls and emails have gone unanswered for days.

Some due to fly within days, or even hours, are weighing up whether to rebook their flights - or to go at all.

The interim system allows fully vaccinated people from Northern Ireland to travel to countries where proof of vaccination is required for entry.

A DoH spokesmnan said work was under way "to safely reinstate the system at the earliest opportunity".

On Tuesday, the DoH said the service was "temporarily interrupted" by a technical difficulty.

The "part of the service that manages identity" was temporarily removed after some applicants received the personal data of other users.

Since Tuesday evening, callers to the hotline have been greeted by an automated message.

The spokesman said teams completing ID checks were receiving upwards of 2,000 calls a day, adding "multiple applications from individuals are contributing to the pressure".

"Applications for certificates up to and including the 30 July have now been processed and issued today (Wednesday 28 July)."

Viola Vannuci is due to fly from Dublin to Italy on Wednesday evening.

Her certification came through within minutes - but her husband's was rejected because the system did not recognise his driving license.

They must decide whether she goes alone to be joined by her partner when his Covid passport comes through.

But he would then have to quarantine for five days alone.

She has been ringing the hotline for days, but has rarely got through, and when she has, the email follow-up has never arrived.

"The irony is I was able to do it in less than five minutes.

"We did everything we were supposed to do. It was a nightmare."

Others have reported similar problems.

Gillian McShane, from Newry, is also waiting for her partner's certification.

They were told the photo of his passport did not show all four corners of the document - but they have been unable to get through to DoH to fix it.

They are due to fly to London, via Dublin, next week.

Dublin is their nearest airport, and the trip was booked before Covid passports were brought in.

"It means so much to me because I'm part of the shielding group, so I didn't leave the house for a year.

"The galling thing about this, because I was shielding I was called early to get the vaccine, my partner got the vaccine as soon as he could, we've toed the line and followed the rules on this to the letter because the consequences of not doing this are so serious for me."

Elin Wilson has already set back her family's trip to Portugal by a week.

They submitted their applications for Covid passports 10 days ago.

Their certificates are ready but because their ID has not yet been validated, she is unable to access them.

Portugal does not accept negative PCR results as an alternative to Covid certificates.

"It has been very stressful and we are really worried of losing out of the holiday and the associated expense," she said.

"We have already re-arranged from last Saturday to this Saturday due to the issue. It has been a struggle and exhausting to try and get in contact with someone that can help."

The DoH spokesman said: "In most instances destination countries will accept a PCR test in place of Covid certificate.

"There are limited number of locations who will ask you to quarantine for a number of days or deny access without certificate.

"This is a changing landscape and individuals are advised to be aware on the local requirement for the country they are travelling to and to keep abreast of requirements when returning as requirements can change at very short notice."