Girona will launch the ‘Obrir Girona’ pilot test on February 25 to return the city to the pre-pandemic stage with mass events through ‘covid-free’ digital passes.
Among the scheduled events, there is a GEIG rugby match, a trade fair in Plaza Independència, an electronic music event at the Auditorium de la Mercè, football and basketball matches, a paddle tennis tournament or a play of the High Season. For now, the UdG, UNI Girona, Temporada Alta, Girona FC, Celler de Can Roca, La Mercè and Girona airport have joined the initiative, together with AENA, and are studying the possibility of participating.
The project, a pioneer in Spain, is promoted by the Blockchain Center of Catalonia (CBCat), with the participation of the City Council, the UdG, the Barcelona and Girona chambers of commerce and the International Chamber of Commerce. The pilot test, which will be launched on February 25 and will last until March 26, plans to use digital credentials to be able to hold public events with important capacity, such as those that were held before the covid. The system will allow all participants to be free of coronavirus and that they will not be exposed to risks of infection.
In order to access the events, users must present a digital certificate, validated by the College of Pharmacists, certifying that they have been vaccinated in the last six months, that they have had serological tests between one and three months ago, or that have been tested for antigens in the last 48 or 72 hours. The final decision to establish these time frames will depend on the local health authorities.
The platform where these digital certificates are stored is the ICC AOKpass, which have already been previously tested in pilot tests around the world, including the Fiumicino airport in Rome, the Etihad Airways airline and the port of Songkhla in Thailand, among others.
AOKpass is, at the same time, a platform and a mobile application based on ‘blockchain’ technology that allows user data to be only located on their device, thus ensuring the protection of user data, thanks to privacy from design. Through this application, users will be able to prove, before accessing the events, that they do not represent any risk of contagion for others.
The members of the band “Love of Lesbian” during the concert offered tonight in Calella de Palafrugell, in Girona, within the Cap Roig Festival program. EFE / David Borrat
EFE
The organizers have advanced the schedule of planned events, but they already warn that it can be altered at any time. The first will be a rugby match at Club Deportivo GEIEG on February 28. On March 5, a commercial fair has been planned in Plaza Independència and the following day, on March 6, an electronic music event in La Mercè. On March 7, a football match between Girona and Almería could be held in Montilivi and on March 8 an institutional act of Women’s Day at the UdG.
If the pilot test has positive results, the idea is to implement it in the rest of the Catalan territory. “If everything goes according to what we have planned, in April-May we could be exporting the test throughout the Catalan territory, and thus enjoy a first-rate tourist summer,” says the president of the Blockchain Center, Quirze Salomó.
