Explainer: How to upload your new digital Covid cert to your mobile phone
Two phones with the official HSE 'Covid Tracker' contact tracing app installed on them.
As people across the country continue to receive their Covid-19 booster vaccinations, here is a step-by-step guide on how to best store your updated digital Covid cert.
Following your Covid-19 booster vaccination, you will receive an updated version of your digital Covid cert via email.
This new cert should be automatically emailed to you once you have received your booster.
Those who do not have an email address will instead receive a text which will provide instructions on how to access the cert.
The updated cert comes ahead of new rules on travel which will mean that from February 1, vaccination certs that show a person received their primary vaccination doses more than nine months ago will not be permitted to travel to another EU country.
So, to ensure easy access to your new cert, here is how to store it on the HSE Covid Tracker App.
If you have not yet downloaded the app to your mobile device, this can be done through the AppStore for iPhone Users or on Google Play.
The app has been updated to include a new button that will allow users to register their EU digital Covid certificate. This will ensure your cert is kept within the app and can be accessed at any time.
Another benefit of this is that the QR code is enlarged once uploaded.
If you have been accessing your cert directly through your email, you will know that you are often asked to ‘zoom in’ to enlarge the code for scanning, so this makes things easier.
Once the option to register your Covid cert is selected, you will then be able to scan the cert through your camera.
However, you will need a copy of your cert in front of you to do this.
One option is to access your email on another screen, such as a laptop or even another mobile phone and from there, open the original version of the cert that should have been emailed to you following your booster vaccination.
By opening the cert here, you can simply hold your phone over the QR code. The QR code looks like a barcode and is the element of the cert that is scanned.
Alternatively, you can print the cert and scan your code through the app this way.
If you have previously uploaded your cert following the primary doses of the vaccine, you may need to first delete this cert before uploading a new one.
This can be done by selecting ‘Eu Digital COVID Certificate detail,’ which will appear under your cert, and the option to delete.
If you've received the Johnson & Johnson one-dose vaccine, and then received a booster vaccine of Pfizer and Moderna, you can upload the new cert to the app as normal.
However, after uploading the new cert to the app, users reported seeing the message that they were "partially vaccinated" rather than fully vaccinated.
To rectify this issue, users must delete the cert from their app and then delete the app. They must then reinstall the Covid tracker app and re-upload their new digital Covid cert. The cert should now read as "fully vaccinated".
If you are eligible for your updated cert and have not yet received it, more information can be found on gov.ie.
