Almost a month since the United States, Canada, and other countries approved the vaccine developed by Oxford, BioNTech, and Pfizer, against COVID-19, a group of healthcare and technology organizations have come together to create a digital vaccine passport. The passport can help individuals provide proof of vaccination against COVID-19.
The healthcare and tech organizations include Oracle, Microsoft, and Salesforce, CARIN Alliance, Cerner, Change Healthcare, the Commons Project Foundation, Epic, Evernorth, Mayo Clinic, MITRE, and Safe Health. The coalition has created the Vaccination Credential Initiative (VCI) that will empower people to easily access their vaccination records digitally based on open, interoperable standards.
Individuals will be able to obtain an encrypted digital copy of their immunization record that they can store in a digital wallet of their choice. Those who do not have access to digital copy can receive a PDF or paper record printed with QR code containing W3C verifiable credentials, and HL7 FHIR standards (“SMART Health Cards”)
Timeline for Digital Vaccine Passport
VCI does not specify a timeline about when the digital records will be available. With the vaccination drive already going in the US and people receiving paper card recording, it’s still to be seen how those records would be transferred to VCI’s digital card.
There are many EU countries that are already working on “vaccination passports” in order to enable travel and tourism to restart.
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