Actually, people who have survived Covid-19 or are vaccinated against it should receive official confirmation of this without any problems. The district administrative authorities are responsible, i.e. the district authorities and, in statutory cities, the magistrate. The emphasis is actually on, because in practice these documents are defacto not available, even though a legal right to them has existed since February 27, 2021.

For travelers in particular, official confirmations from the respective district administrative authorities, where the local health authorities are usually located, can be of particular importance. There is an international agreement that gives the yellow WHO vaccination certificate a special status, but for some countries this is no longer sufficient. Soon Austria no longer wants to recognize the WHO passport, but insists on official certificates or the Green Pass. Of course, this is a long way off, because implementation is literally behind schedule.

Where to get the coveted official certificates is clearly regulated in § 4 Paragraph 18 (recovered) and Paragraph 20 (vaccinated) Epidemic Act since February 27, 2021: At the district authority or in statutory cities at the magistrate. Since the authorities are still in a kind of "anti-party traffic" under the guise of the corona pandemic, in most offices nothing works without making an appointment by telephone. You cannot reserve an appointment online for this matter and there is a good reason for this, as will be shown in the further course of this article.

Health authorities get rid of - paragraphs apparently unknown

Anyone who thinks that everything is cleared up by calling the district authority or the magistrate and that the "slip of paper" can be picked up quickly or even sent to you, will unfortunately have to be disappointed. Aviation Direct contacted the district authorities Mattersburg and St. Pölten-Land as well as the municipal department 15 of the city of Vienna on a random basis. The initial information given by telephone was not only disappointing, but blatant misinformation was given. Paragraph 4 (20) of the Epidemic Act was completely unknown to all three authorities. Despite multiple connections, the employees could not do anything with it and referred to the Austrian Health Insurance Fund, as this would be responsible for it and only they could “look into the ELGA system”.

On the suggestion that the district administrative authorities were responsible according to the law, it was commented that the ÖGK would still be responsible. The MA15 also referred to the so-called district offices of the MA15 with the slightly cynical addition “just ask”. Of course, the district offices did not know anything either and referred to the Austrian health insurance company. “We are not doing any vaccinations at the moment, so we cannot issue any confirmations. We don't even have software on the computer ”, so the little factual information from an employee of an MA15 district office.

ÖGK "angry" about false information from the authorities

So should the Austrian health insurance company issue the confirmations for those who have been vaccinated and those who have recovered? The initial information on the phone was more like “if you want something, swing your bum into office”, because the hotline was completely at a loss and advised you to go to an office. There, of course, the certificates could not be issued, but one employee chatted from the sewing box and said that the health authorities send a double-digit number of people to the ÖGK every day. It is a matter of misinformation, because the ÖGK would not be authorized to issue the confirmations, nor would it have access to the electronic vaccination certificate. Not surprisingly: The health insurance company again refers to the district administrative authority and says that you should submit a written application and also ask ELGA from time to time.

The background to this is that every Covid vaccination administered in Austria is entered in an electronic vaccination pass. Whether you want it or not - the authorities are not interested, because in contrast to the rest of ELGA there is no possibility to deregister from the e-vaccination card. The electronic vaccination certificate can be viewed and even printed out at any time using the so-called citizen card or mobile phone signature. Found the solution to the problem?

ELGA printouts without specifying the exhibitor: Foreign authorities do not recognize this

No, not at all. The PDF file that can be downloaded does not meet any formal requirements for official documents. It is not even recorded who issued the document. Of course, there is also no official signature, which is de facto worthless outside of Austria anyway. To put it simply: You have a PDF file in front of you that looks as if you had “tinkered” something yourself in Word.

So should foreign authorities, for example, recognize this “smear” at border controls? As expected, the answer from the Health Ministries of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria and Germany as well as the Office of Deputy Prime Minister of Malta is very clear: No! The "Elga expression" does not even meet the simplest formal requirements. It was even pointed out that the PDF files of the Austrian e-vaccination pass would not reveal who issued the document in the first place and, on top of that, it did not seem valid.

Then there is still the “offline route”, that is, to request an extract from the e-vaccination card from ELGA using a five A4-page form. A look at the so-called official signature law, on the basis of which authorities have been sending letters and notices without a stamp or signature for several years, shows that citizens have the right to receive a variant with an official seal and signature. Sounds like a jackpot and you would have to get a copy from ELGA with a stamp and signature?

Nada. The responsible ELGA office announced that the printout, which can only be requested by post using a five A4-page form plus a copy of an ID card - not by e-mail or fax - is neither stamped nor signed. In response to the claim that the authenticity of the document should be certified with a stamp and signature, they said succinctly that they were only a technical service provider and did not even know whether the vaccinations had actually been administered.

Authorities can take up to six months

Then there was the tip from the Austrian Health Insurance Fund that a written application should be submitted to the district administrative authority. Basically a good idea, because offices have to react to that. Immediately write in the application that the authorities should issue a notification if they do not comply with the request. All by registered mail to the respective office and then it's time to wait. But be careful: The so-called General Administrative Act provides that authorities have a proud six months to deal with the matter. Even then, they don't have to lift a finger, because the citizen can then submit a so-called default complaint to the locally responsible administrative court. This must be submitted to the original authority.

The crux of the "application matter" is: The legislature has failed to set a deadline for the completion in the paragraphs of the Epidemic Act mentioned at the beginning. Specifically, this means that the authorities can bend to the AVG paragraph that issues must be dealt with within six months at the most, so that they have six months. By then, health minister Wolfgang Mückstein (Greens) announced that the health minister's health and vaccination status will have expired anyway. A real fight against windmills, even though the law clearly regulates who is responsible and how it has to go.

MA15 sees the fault with the Mückstein Ministry

What do the Ministry of Health and the authorities say about this absurd approach and the obvious denial of legal rights? The Ministry of Health, headed by Wolfgang Mückstein (Greens), gave no statement at all, despite repeated reminders. The obviously extremely unpleasant request was completely ignored. Lower Austria and Burgenland referred to the responsibility of the Ministry of Health.

Only the Municipal Department 15 of the City of Vienna's Municipal Authority made a statement, but did not answer the specific questions. The media officer provided a very detailed statement for the non-response, from which excerpts are quoted below: "Originally, the BMSGPK communicated with regard to the provisions of § 4 Paragraph 18 and 20 EpiG (relating to proof of recovery and proof of vaccination, in force since February 27.02.2021, XNUMX) that this is to be handled via federal software and the states can generate this evidence from the health portal (federal software). This was at a time when the legal regulations were already in force. In fact, this option did not yet exist because the federal government had not yet created the technical options. In response to inquiries from the federal states, the BMSGPK has not yet been able to clarify how these certificates can be issued. It was only recently communicated by the federal government that the technical implementation would now have to be carried out by the federal states. Of course, we are currently working on this, but this will of course still take some time. In view of this, I must ask for your understanding that an answer to the questions below does not seem sensible / possible from the current point of view. "

If the authorities were only willing to certify vaccinations that they have administered themselves in the form of an official confirmation of the status (Section 4 (20) of the Epidemic Act), then it would be very simple: if necessary Write a few lines in the word processing program, print them out on official letterhead, stamp the official seal, the signature of the authorized official on it and voila: a legally compliant certificate that is most likely internationally recognized would be there. But this will obviously not exist.

Counterfeiters deliver within an hour

Sad, but unfortunately true: for around 200 euros, there are fake yellow WHO vaccination cards on the Internet, which can be handed over within an hour - if need be - for an appropriate "tip". And that is precisely the reason why the WHO vaccination certificate will no longer be recognized as a “second passport” in the very near future.

Counterfeiting this is actually not rocket science: Get a free “blank” from the pharmacy, make or order a stamp, use a printer to print a label with any batch number, put the date, fake stamps and fake stickers in the vaccination pass and voila, that Fake is done. But then you are in jail with one foot, because it is a forgery of documents that is punishable by prison sentences in most countries. Therefore: Under no circumstances "tinker" anything and certainly not buy any fakes! It is better to induce the authorities with their legal “weapons”, i.e. applications, deadline applications, complaints and “annoying” calls, to give in and act.