Travel troubles despite negative Covid test Bonn teen had to spend hours at Paris police station
Bonn · Because the QR code on his Covid test document issued in Bonn was not recognized as valid in France, a 17-year-old from Bonn had to spend several hours in the custody of the Paris police. The testing center in Bonn promptly apologized.
When a Christmas trip to visit his grandmother in Marseille turned into a 36-hour odyssey for a 17-year-old from Bonn, one could safely say that his Christmas was ruined. Here is the story of what happened to the son of GA reader Marta Knitter-Schuhmacher. Traveling with a valid negative Covid test, her son had set off from Bonn on December 25. It took one and a half days before he finally arrived at his grandmother’s, the teenager having gone through a stressful journey to get there. He was not allowed to change buses in Paris and ended up being held for several hours in a police cell there. The reason for the less than festive ordeal was apparently the Covid documentation from a Bonn test center.
Because the QR code on the printout of the negative test was not accepted by the bus staff in Paris and declared invalid, the teen, with support from his mother, called the police for help. Knitter-Schuhmacher explained what happened and she is still upset about it a few days after the incident. She is angry with Flixbus, which refused to allow the 17-year-old to change buses in Paris. And she is angry with the Paris police, who apparently put the boy in a cell with a drunken cell mate while he had to wait several hours for a train so he could continue his journey by train. Above all, she is angry with the test center at the Bonn Markt. She accuses the operator KDP BioMed GmbH, based in Berlin, of being responsible for the invalid QR code and thus for the disastrous trip.
Received negative Covid test in Bonn before traveling
About two hours before departure, the teenager got a free Covid-19 test in Bonn. "It can’t be more than 24 hours old for entry into France," the mother said. With a printout of the negative test result and a digital version on his smartphone, the teen set off on his journey. Climbing aboard the bus in Bonn, there had been no issues, but it was different in Paris.
After contacting the test center operator, Knitter-Schuhmacher learned that it was apparently necessary to enter the code and thus the test result in one of four recognized apps in order to achieve "EU compliancy." In retrospect, she said, she had tried all the apps - but she received messages of "unreadable or invalid.” The French police also tested the QR code. The result - the same.
The Bonn woman criticizes the fact that the test center did not mention the obligation to enter the test result in an app. The following is noted on the test document: "Result can be verified with free Test Verify app" („Ergebnis kann mit kostenloser Test-Verify-App verifiziert werden). This did not make it clear to the mother that she needed to take further action. "You would have to be explicitly told about that in bold print in a written note or something similar. If it had said that an app must be used for foreign travel, this dangerous situation might not have happened.”
Test center apologizes to family
According to the German Foreign Office, travelers, including minors, can prove vaccination, test or convalescent status in paper form or digitally "e.g. via an entry in the French app 'TousAntiCovid' or also a German app ('CovPass' or 'Corona-Warn-App')." A staff member from the test center has so far only stated that "the document must be valid”.
KDP BioMed GmbH has not yet explained to the family whether there was actually a faulty code. Knitter-Schuhmacher said that at least the company apologized to the family after they contacted it. In a written statement from the company made available to the GA, it was said that the company wanted to review the information given out, including the exact wording used. After the incident and the long delay, the 17-year-old finally arrived at his grandmother's house.
(Orig. text: Alexander Barth / Translation: Carol Kloeppel)
