With France under a strict lockdown until April 15 to slow the spread of coronavirus, it is required that each person carry a paper certificate while outside, attesting to the nature of their trip.
On Monday, the government released a digital certificate for use on mobile phones as well. It is available on the Ministry of the Interior's website for download onto smartphones.
After clicking on "generate a certificate," and filling out the required fields, a PDF file is created to be saved on the phone.
The digital certificate has a QR code for scan in the event of a police check. No private information is sent to third parties in the process of a check.
As with a paper, which may still be used (handwritten versions are acceptable), the digital form asks for name, date of birth, address, reason for outing, signature, date, and time.
The digital version eliminates the need for printing endless forms, and since gendarmes policing neighborhoods insist on an original form for each outing, simply changing the date and time is not allowed.
The digital form must also be filled out each time, and the required fields are cleared with a new download when the certificate is generated again.
The French are in week three of the lockdown, which may be extended past April 15.
During the restrictions, one is allowed out only for food shopping, essential work, medical or legal reasons, pet care, or for exercise, one hour/one time per day.
To date, there have been 8,093 fatalities in France. A total of 70,478 confirmed cases of infection have been reported with 51,557 of those in hospital and 6,978 in intensive care. The figures are announced daily by Director General of Health Jerome Salomon.
Worldwide, there are over 1.28 million COVID-19 cases with 69,789 reported deaths. Some 265,462 people have recovered from the virus since the start of the outbreak, according to data compiled by U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University.
