Green Pass downloads surge as new regime gets acid test

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 18 - Downloads of Italy's Green Pass have been surging with the new regime in which the COVID-19 health certificate is obligatory to access places of work starting its first full week on Monday.
    The Green Pass, which shows that a person is vaccinated for COVID-19, has recovered from it in the last six months or has tested negative in the last few days, became obligatory for private and public-sector workers on Friday.
    So far over 100 million Green Passes have been downloaded in Italy.
    Some 437,000 were downloaded just on Sunday, when there were long queues at many pharmacies to have swab tests.
    Of those 437,000 Green Passes, 261,00 were downloaded by people who had had swabs, 174,000 people who were vaccinated and over 1,500 people who had recovered from the virus.
    The system makes it possible for people who do not want to get vaccinated to continue to go work, but they have to repeatedly have tests to be able to obtain a new pass every two or three days.
    Around 2.5 passes were downloaded between October 14 and 16, including 867,039 on Friday alone. (ANSA).