- Published
"Teething problems" with Scotland's new Covid vaccine passport scheme should be resolved within a couple of days, the Scottish government has said.
Many venues have not asked for proof of vaccination because of bugs in the app.
A government spokesman said the grace period before enforcement begins on 18 October was "deliberately provided" to allow the system to be tested.
The scheme, which only allows fully vaccinated people to attend some large events, officially began on Friday.
Unseated outdoor events with more than 4,000 attendees need to carry out a "reasonable number" of spot checks while nightclubs and smaller venues covered by the scheme will be required to conduct more rigorous checking.
Representatives of the nightclub sector, however, said the scheme was "not fit for purpose".
Many people took to social media on Friday to complain of problems with the vaccine certification app which only became available to download about 12 hours before the scheme started at 05:00 that morning.
The Scottish government had previously announced there would no enforcement of the new rules until 18 October, to give venues a chance to get their procedures up and running.
More than 167,600 people have now downloaded the app and 750,000 have obtained evidence of vaccine status as a downloadable PDF or a paper copy from NHS Inform.
"We are aware of some teething issues which are primarily down to the volume of requests and urgent work is underway to resolve this," a spokesman said.
"We expect the problems, and the associated backlog, to be cleared within the next couple of days. A further fix has been identified and is being tested."
He added: "No-one should be turned away from a late night venue, or large scale event if they don't have their proof of vaccination, given enforcement doesn't begin for over two weeks.
"We have deliberately provided this grace period before the enforcement provisions in the regulations come into force to allow the system to be tested."
'Disastrous launch'
Football clubs hosting three premier league matches this weekend said no fans would be turned away for not having proof of vaccine status.
Hearts said it would simply be trialling its checking system and no fans were turned away from its match with Motherwell on Saturday.
Rangers also said its match with Hibs at Ibrox on Sunday would be a "test event", while Aberdeen FC said everyone would be allowed entry to Pittodrie for its match against Celtic "regardless of whether they have proof of vaccine or not".
The Night Time Industries Association (NTIA), which opposes the scheme, said the launch had been "disastrous" and a "shambles".
A spokesperson said: "It has become very clear that the Scottish App is simply not fit for purpose and the vast majority of people are experiencing repeated problems in registering and uploading their personal vaccine status to the app.
"The NTIA has repeatedly warned Scottish government of just how unworkable their vaccine passport plan is, and the disastrous launch of this flawed scheme has proved that our warnings were well founded."
What did Glasgow's clubbers make of it?
By Jonathan Peters, BBC Scotland News
Day one of Scotland's vaccine certification scheme, and there was a mixed reaction in this nightclub's queue.
Most clubbers had heard of the app, and given the reported teething issues, a surprising number had even managed to get it working.
Everyone we spoke to said they would show their vaccine status to gain entry into the club. Enthusiasm for the scheme was less unanimous.
The grace period before the scheme becomes mandatory was welcome for a lot of these young people, some of whom said they simply did not have time to get both doses before today.
There was some confusion about when exactly the scheme comes into effect. A few clubbers we spoke to in the queue were so anxious to get in that when they ran into difficulties with the app, they downloaded their vaccine papers on to their phones.
So will this drive more young people to get the vaccine? Everyone we spoke to said they had either had both doses already, or would be fully vaccinated soon. No one said entry to a nightclub was the deciding factor.
Will it make clubs safer? "It's a little late," was the view of the club's manager, pointing out they have been open for several weeks already.
He was confident door staff could handle the extra checks, and the bouncers were checking phones as well as IDs without any great difficulty. Of course, no one was turned away for lack of a vaccine passport tonight.
The real test will come later this month, when it becomes mandatory.
Mike Grieve, chairman NTIA Scotland director of the Sub Club, said: "As anticipated, the roll out of this ill-conceived policy led to chaos and confusion in the street last night with only a handful of our customers in possession of a functioning app passport.
"Around 50-60 others had a photocopy or screenshot of the wrong vaccination information or other spurious evidence of vaccination. Despite this we successfully checked all attendees for same day LFTs {lateral flow tests] to protect the health and safety of our customers and staff. What a shambles!"
Murdo Fraser, Scottish Conservatives Covid recovery spokesperson, said: "The SNP has saddled Scotland with the worst vaccine passport scheme in Europe, a £600K app that doesn't even work, and legal regulations that the public has no choice but to ignore.
"When will the SNP admit defeat and order an emergency stop to this embarrassing and shambolic policy?"
The Scottish government, however, insisted the vaccine passport scheme was an important tool as part of a package of measures to control the spread of the virus.
A legal challenge to the scheme from the NTIA was unsuccessful when a judge ruled on Friday that it was "an attempt to address legitimate issues" and that the petitioners had failed to demonstrate that it was "disproportionate, irrational or unreasonable".
from Via PakapNews