Is a ‘vaccine passport’ required to travel abroad? Promote proof of vaccination when entering the US and EU

Entry 2020.12.28 08:26

In the future, travel abroad is expected to only be possible with a ‘vaccine passport’ showing that you have received the corona vaccine, as well as a regular passport.

The CNN broadcast on the 27th (local time) reported that the work of developing a ‘vaccine passport’ showing that vaccination is in full swing, while vaccination has begun in the United States and the European Union (EU). .

The idea is to create a digital certificate that can show that people who have been vaccinated can prove that they have been vaccinated when they enter another country to travel or go to a cinema, concert hall or stadium.

CNN reported that “some companies and information groups have begun to develop an application (application) or a system for smartphones that allows people to upload detailed information about COVID-19 tests and vaccines.”

The Commons Project, a non-profit organization in Geneva, Switzerland, and the World Economic Forum (WEF) are pushing a plan for the ‘Common Trust Network’ to develop a ‘Common Pass’ app to be used for this purpose .

With the CommonPass app, people can upload not only Corona 19 test results, but also medical data such as vaccination certificates issued by hospitals and medical experts. In this way, a certificate or medical pass is issued that can be presented as evidence to the health authorities without revealing sensitive personal information in the form of a QR code.

The app also shows you a list of health pass requirements, based on your origin and destination, as you enter your itinerary.

They are working on the development in collaboration with airlines such as Cathay Pacific, Jetblue, Lufthansa, Swiss Airlines, United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, and hundreds of medical corporations in the United States and the Dutch island of Aruba.
Thomas Cramton, director of marketing and communications for Project Commons, said: “You can get tested every time you cross borders, but you cannot get a vaccine every time you cross borders.”

Director Cramton called the certificate “digital yellow paper” compared to “yellow paper,” a yellow fever vaccination certificate required when traveling to Africa.

Large information technology (IT) companies are also joining. IBM has developed its own application called ‘Digital Health Pass’. Companies, concert halls, conference halls, stadiums, etc. They can customize the requirements for admission, such as fever tests, corona 19 tests, and immunization records.

CNN noted that in the future, application developers may face challenges such as privacy issues and different efficacy of each vaccine, but noted that the most urgent challenge may be to avoid inconsistent implementation of the contact tracking application for people infected with COVID-19.

In the United States, since there are no unified guidelines from the federal government, each state independently introduced them and implemented them as a modification recipe.

The non-profit organization “ Linux Foundation Public Health ” is preparing a more organized response in association with the “ Covid-19 Credentials Initiative ”, a group of representatives from Common Pass and many organizations around the world.

If successful, Linux Foundation director Brian Velendoff will be able to present it when people keep their vaccination certificate on their smartphones and when they take a flight to another country or enter a concert in another country. Forecast.

“It should be possible to exchange information with each other, just like email or the Internet,” Velendoff said.