Confusion over need to scan vax passes
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Covid-19 Minister Chris Hipkins say venues requiring
Covid-19 vaccine passes will be able to check them visually instead of using an official app.
But the Ministry of Health’s website for the verifier app disagreed, saying vaccine passes would need to be scanned to ‘‘allow entry’’.
‘‘Visually checking passes isn’t enough to allow entry. Scanning someone’s pass proves that it is authentic, valid, and has not expired,’’ the website reads.
A spokesman for Hipkins said the website’s information was based on an ‘‘early assumption’’.
Hipkins said the vast majority of businesses were likely to use the app as the best way to comply with their legal responsibility to keep people safe.
Under the new traffic light framework starting on December
3, businesses that require vaccine passes have far greater freedom to operate.
The Government launched the vaccine passes last week, and, yesterday, a scanning app for businesses to check if the passes are legitimate.
But Ardern was quick to note that businesses could choose to ‘‘sight’’ the passes instead if that was more practicable.
‘‘The app is a handy tool, but it is not a requirement to operate,’’ Ardern said.
‘‘You can sight someone’s vaccine pass, and if you have any concerns you can ask for verifier ID.’’
Hipkins agreed but cautioned that the Government could require that some passes be checked. He said the Government might require businesses to scan a certain proportion of vaccine passes if it suspected extensive fraud.
But in general, businesses would be able to visually sight the passes.
The system would be monitored for the first few weeks.
The Government said 1.47 million people had downloaded a vaccine pass as of 10.30am yesterday – equivalent to about 42 per cent of the 3.52 million people double vaccinated.
Ardern said the vaccine verifier app would be a useful backup to check for fraudulent passes.
‘‘The vaccine verification app is a way that we’ve got a ready-to-go tool that if people do have concerns around whether or not passes are being used appropriately or whether or not they’re being doctored, we’ve got a backup measure to be able to readily and easily check that they are valid passes.’’