PLF not to be mandatory to enter Slovenia

Ljubljana – As Slovenia introduces the European Digital Passenger Locator Form (dPLF) on Monday for air and cruise ship passengers entering the country, the Health Ministry has told the STA filling out the form will not be compulsory. However, it will be a useful contact-tracing tool for the health authorities.

In a post published on its website on Thursday, the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) says its epidemiological service will use the data provided by passengers in the form to get in touch with them or their contacts in case of an infection to prevent further transmissions and to protect passengers’ health.

The form is to be filled out by all passengers “both foreigners and Slovenian citizens entering Slovenia by plane or ship”. The requirement will apply to all flights, including private ones, while in sea transport only cruise passengers will be asked to fill out the form.

Each passenger will be asked to fill it out, even when travelling with a group or family. However, one account may be used to submit up to five forms for a family or group.

The aircraft or cruise crew will not be required to fill out the dPLF nor will passengers who do not leave the transit area of the airport.

The Slovenian dPLF is part of the European electronic PLF system and is accessible at https://app.euplf.eu. The form facilitates collection and exchange of data between EU member countries, which makes passenger contract tracing more successful and efficient.

Filling out the PLF will not be mandatory for the time being. The passenger will be informed of the requirement to fill out the form to enter Slovenia by the operator of the flight or cruise voyage, but the Health Ministry says no one will check for the time being whether the passenger has in fact filled out the form or not.

“It is a tool exclusively to serve as an aid to the epidemiological service in rapid identification of high-risk contacts and in the interests of the person to be notified fast of such a contact,” the ministry said.

“The data of the passengers who will out the dPLF will be transferred automatically to the NIJZ database. Only if high-risk contacts are identified will the data be used by the duty epidemiologist to notify the persons concerned and give them instructions on steps to take.”

Several European countries have such a form. The EU-wide PLF is also being used by Italy and Malta and another 13 EU member countries have similar forms of their own that passengers need to fill out before entry.

Passenger locator systems are mostly used in air traffic, 12 EU countries also use them to locate sea passengers and ten also use it for land passengers, according to the NIJZ.

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