I can’t update my Covid vaccine record to get a vital pass in Italy
My Covid booster vaccination in October does not appear on my NHS app, leaving me in a desperate situation. For the last month I’ve been in Italy where a “super green pass” is required for access to public transport and all indoor public spaces, but it expires 270 days after the last vaccination. My second jab, last April, is now invalid. I’ve been trying since November to get this resolved. The NHS website directed me to 119, which referred me to the Vaccine Data Resolution Service (VDRS). It was supposed to ring me within three weeks. Six weeks on, I’m still waiting, but the 119 number doesn’t work from Italy. I have had to cancel all future social and business arrangements and I am concerned that I may not even be able to access the airport to fly home. I cannot be the only one caught up in this.
MT, London
Indeed you are not, which is why the VDRS was set up for patients registered to an English GP who received their jab in England. NHS England wouldn’t comment on whether it’s struggling with a backlog of incomplete vaccine records, but in an email to you a caseworker explained that demand had been higher than expected.
The trouble is, patients can’t contact the VDRS directly. They call the 119 number which, as you’ve found, is inaccessible from overseas, and the NHS advice page on updating a vaccine record gives no alternative. Nor is there the option for you to log your details online. The VDRS pledges to attempt to make contact up to three times within 21 days, and expects the person to have vaccine dates, batch numbers and the full address of the vaccine centre at the ready when the call comes. You were contacted by an agent after I intervened and, three months after your booster jab, your pass was updated.
The NHS says: “Staff are working hard to resolve all issues as quickly and efficiently as possible.” The telephone number for overseas callers is +44 151 905 0119 and anyone facing delays can complain to england.contactus@nhs.net.
Incidentally, Britons planning to travel within the EU may be unaware that, from 1 February, they will be deemed unvaccinated if their second jab was more than 270 days ago, and have not received a booster. Although new rules, announced last month by the European Commission, do not affect entry to the EU, they would effectively bar travellers from amenities in many member states once they are there.
You wouldn’t necessarily know this because there’s not a word about it in the travel sections of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) website. The FCO tells me member states are not compelled to follow this ruling. Not true. It is legally binding, and the EC proposes to extend it to non-EU citizens entering the EU in due course.
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