Digital vaccination certificate in pharmacies: "We couldn't prepare at all"

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Pharmacist Sabine Hagemeier in Hamburg: "We imagined everything to be worse"

Photo: Laura Binder / DER SPIEGEL

Number 77 comes in with the yellow paper ID of the World Health Organization and the smartphone in his hand.

"The digital vaccination card?" Asks the pharmacist, nodding towards the computer in the middle of the counter.

It is Monday afternoon and for the Jarre pharmacy in the Hamburg district of Winterhude it is the first day on which the employees can translate the corona vaccinations into a QR code.

76 people have already received the code on that day.

Malte Möller, number 77, works as an intensive care doctor, he received his second vaccination at the beginning of February.

He needs the digital ID for a private trip to Sweden, says the 56-year-old.

"The practical thing is that this code can also be used abroad." That makes traveling much easier.

A code after ten clicks

The pharmacist doesn't need a lot of information: his name, date of birth, which vaccine he was injected and when, and the number of the dose.

Malte Möller only needs his vaccination certificate, smartphone and ID card.

About ten clicks later, white and black boxes are generated: The QR code is ready.

When Malte Möller left the pharmacy a few minutes later, he was holding an A4 sheet of paper in his hand.

It shows his code, which he can scan in the Corona warning app or the CovPass app.

There is no sign of an onslaught here, as some feared.

Outside the door, a little snake forms every now and then, it dissolves quickly.

"It's very humane," says Ahrens.

And that even though the pharmacy team was only able to log in at 12.20 p.m. to generate the QR codes.

"The servers were overloaded, we came in at 10 o'clock, but we couldn't create a certificate."

The people who come out of the pharmacy with their vaccination card in hand stand out on the busy street.

"Oh, you can do that here?" Asks a woman.

"Yes, without registration, all you need is the vaccination certificate, ID and a cell phone," the man replies.

She photographs the name of the pharmacy outside: "That's great."

140,000 certificates have already been issued

Which pharmacies are participating can be seen online on the platform »mein-apothekenmanager.de«.

However, the server was partly unavailable in the morning.

According to the Federal Association of German Pharmacists' Associations, 140,000 certificates had already been issued by 11 a.m.

Almost 19,000 pharmacies in Germany are listed there for the digitization of vaccination records.

The start started earlier about two kilometers away: The pharmacy at Mühlenkamp was able to log in at 8 a.m. when the procedure was activated.

How well did the preparation go?

Pharmacist Sabine Hagemeier laughs briefly.

"We couldn't prepare at all," says the 53-year-old.

By the afternoon they had issued well over 100 certificates, and in between there were always some that didn't work.

"But: we imagined it would be worse," says Hagemeier.

The creation is uncomplicated when everything is technically running.

They are already well established hours later.

Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn only presented the start of the digital vaccination certificate last Thursday.

Among other things, this should make it easier to travel beyond Germany's borders.

Not only pharmacies will be able to create QR codes in the future, vaccination centers and medical practices too.

Spahn warned that not all vaccinated people with the yellow vaccination booklet should go to pharmacies on Monday.

"I'm just pure"

Pharmacist Sabine Hagemeier doubts that the rush is getting bigger every day.

"When it was announced last week that we could issue the QR codes, many did not know that it would not be until Monday and came over to ask," she says.

"That was more stressful because we first had to find out: when does it work, when does it apply, who is allowed to do it."

Two people come out of the pharmacy within ten minutes with the printed QR code in hand. One is 29 years old and doesn't want to read his name here. He uses the code for a Mallorca vacation, he says. Another, Pauline F., 19 years old, happened to come by, as she says. Her second vaccination was exactly 14 days ago, she is considered fully vaccinated on this Monday. "I knew that this pharmacy would take part, but I hadn't planned it today," says Pauline. “Since there was no line, I'm just in. Now I've done it. "