Covid-19 status digitisation may be on the cards

A MOVE towards digital documentation of a person’s Covid-19 status may be on the cards, with the World Health Organization (WHO) saying data can be digitally documented via an electronic certificate.

At the weekend, WHO published a guidance document for countries and implementing partners on the technical requirements for issuing digital certificates for vaccination against Covid-19. The guidance is part of a series of planned documents on digitalisation of Covid-19 certificates.

“Vaccination certificates are nothing new,” the WHO said.

“They are health documents that

record a vaccination event – traditionally as a paper card – with key details including the date, product and batch number of the vaccine administered. A vaccination certificate can be purely digital (for example stored in a smartphone application or on a cloud-based server and replace the need for a paper card, or it can be a digital representation of the traditional paper-based record.

“The link between the paper record and the digital record can be established using a barcode, for example, printed on or affixed to the paper vaccination card. A digital certificate should never require individuals to have a smartphone or computer,” it said.

The organisation also added that it does not support the requirement of proof of Covid-19 vaccination in order to travel.

“In some situations, however, depending on the risk assessment of the countries concerned, information about vaccination against Covid-19 may be used to reduce requirements for quarantine or testing upon arrival. But this is not the primary purpose of the move towards digital documentation of Covid-19 status.”

The technical content of the guidance has been made available to partner countries and economies that have developed, or are in the process of developing national digital vaccination certificates.