If a COVID certificate is required, the necessary information on the vaccination or a test must be transmitted by the relevant service provider or issuer (e.g. from the vaccination or testing centre or laboratory) to the federal IT systems so that the certificate can be created and signed in a forgery-proof manner. The issued COVID certificate is then transferred back to the requesting issuer/service provider to make it available to you. By means of a transfer code, the certificate can also be transferred directly to your COVID Certificate app. The certificate is then stored only locally at the requesting issuers and/or in the COVID Certificate app on your smartphone. Neither personal data nor the certificates themselves are stored in a central federal system. If you lose your certificate (on your smartphone or in paper form), you must request another COVID certificate from the place where you were vaccinated or tested and that issued it. You should therefore store your COVID certificate on paper in a safe place so that you can transfer it to a new smartphone if necessary. To find out how to get a COVID certificate as a PDF or on paper, see the FAQs: "I only have my COVID certificate electronically in the COVID Certificate app. How can I get the certificate as a PDF or on paper?".