We move on to the digital documentation on the status of COVID-19

Vaccination certificates are nothing new. They are health documents that record the vaccination event – traditionally as a paper card – with key details including the date, product and batch number of the vaccine administered.

Digital documentation of COVID-19 certificates has been proposed as a mechanism by which the health data of a person associated with COVID-19 can be digitally documented via an electronic certificate.

The certificate can be used in the same way as the vaccination card / card on paper. It is the provision of information to healthcare providers on the vaccination status of individuals, providing a basis for healthcare professionals to offer a subsequent dose and / or appropriate healthcare services as needed. In some cases, vaccination cards are also used to facilitate international travel, for example in the case of yellow fever, where some countries may require a vaccination certificate as a condition of entry.

Historically, vaccination records on paper have posed many challenges — such as the possibility of losing or damaging a card, and even the possibility of fraud. The proposed digital solutions are designed to address these challenges.

The vaccination certificate can be exclusively digital (for example, stored in a smartphone app or on a cloud server) and replace the need for a paper card, or it can be a digital display of a traditional paper record. The connection between the paper record and the digital record can be established by means of a bar code, for example, printed on a paper card or attached to it. A digital certificate should never require individuals to have a smartphone or computer.

WHO guidelines

The WHO does not support the request for evidence of vaccination against COVID-19 for travel. In some situations, however, depending on the risk assessment of the countries concerned, vaccination information against COVID-19 may be used to reduce quarantine or on-demand testing requirements. However, this is not the primary purpose of the transition to digital documentation of COVID-19 status.

On 27 August 2021, the WHO published a guidance document for countries and implementing partners on technical requirements for the issuance of digital vaccination certificates against COVDI-19. Full instructions can be found here. The guidelines are part of a series of planned documents on the digitization of the COVID-19 certificate. The guidelines will, inter alia, support Member States in adopting digital tools to document vaccination status against COVID-19 for the purpose of effective health care, and proof of vaccination will be needed for other purposes.

The minimum requirements for the implementation of digital documentation in countries around the world allow Member States the greatest possible flexibility in building a solution that is appropriate not only to their needs, but also to the different needs of individuals around the world. The guidelines have been developed in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team of experts to ensure that they will be useful to governments and implementing partners who have built or are currently developing systems for issuing or verifying digital vaccination certificates.

The technical content of the guidelines has been made available to partner countries and economies that have developed or are in the process of developing national digital vaccination certificates to ensure that these digitally certified products are interoperable. Technical assistance will be provided to countries and implementing partners to help bring existing products in line with WHO specifications.