Which countries are introducing vaccine passports and what it means for international travel
As travel borders reopen, more countries are introducing digital vaccination certificates. Here’s how they work.
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With light at the end of the pandemic tunnel as inoculation drives allow Europe and other regions to start opening up from pandemic restrictions, more countries are implementing vaccine passport systems that will allow travellers to cross borders using a mobile phone app to verify they have been vaccinated.
With such proof, quarantine requirements at their destination of choice can be sidestepped and travel can begin to resume to normal.
While there is no one global system to electronically verify vaccination status, countries and regions are developing their own approach to digital jab certificates, while navigating issues surrounding equality and privacy.
While Australia has not yet introduced a vaccine passport, Department of Home Affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo recently said the federal government’s digital passport decleration system is likely to be trialled next year.
“The DPD will have the capability to validate the vaccination status of people who have been vaccinated in Australia when they return from overseas,” Mr Pezzullo told a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra on Monday.
“At the appropriate time, subject to public health advice, this could support Australians’ ability to travel without the need for 14 days quarantine on return.”
Here’s what other countries are doing:
UNITED STATES
The US does not currently have any requirements for international travellers to be vaccinated but does require those travelling to the US to test negative for Covid-19.
While the Biden administration has said it will not develop a federal vaccine passport that Americans would be forced to show within the US for domestic travel, it is currently considering creating a vaccine passport for Americans travelling overseas.
“We’re taking a very close look at that,” US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on national television.
Mr Mayorkas told ABC TV, the Biden administration wants to ensure that “any passport that we provide for vaccinations is accessible to all and that no one is disenfranchised.”
A Homeland Security spokesman for Mr Mayorkas later clarified the statement to Forbes, and said he was referring to a passport “ensuring that all US travellers will be able to easily meet any anticipated foreign country entry requirements,” and that the US will not have any centralised vaccination database or credential.
“We’ve always said we’re looking at how we can ensure Americans travelling abroad have a quick and easy way to enter other countries,” a DHS spokesman told Forbes in an email. “There will be no federal vaccinations database and no federal mandate requiring everyone to obtain a single vaccination credential.”
Conservative states like Florida and Texas reject the idea of vaccination documents on grounds this would violate people’s basic rights as equal citizens.
UNITED KINGDOM
The UK has updated its National Health Service app allowing fully vaccinated holders to verify their status when travelling overseas.
There are currently calls from the sports sector to introduce a similar system for events.
The Premier League wants digital Covid passports to be introduced to ensure that there are full stadiums next season rather than playing behind closed doors.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is considering a scheme under which the NHS app is converted to a digital Covid passport that proves vaccination status or a recent negative test, with plans to introduce it for mass events after 21 June as an alternative to social distancing.
EUROPE
The European Union is working to introduce a vaccine travel document so it can welcome back badly needed tourists during the northern summer.
More than a dozen EU countries have agreed to test a vaccine passport system from 7 June, when the scheme’s rollout is expected to be confirmed.
The EU’s Digital Green Certificate is key for the bloc’s reopening for summer and will allow travellers to demonstrate their vaccination status and testing history for free in the form of a QR code on a smartphone or paper document.
It will demonstrate whether a bearer has been vaccinated against Covid-19, has been recently tested or has acquired immunity from previously contracting the disease and recovering.
EU members will be asked to allow entry to travellers who have received the required doses of one of the four vaccines that have been approved by the European Medicines Agency: Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.
The certificate system will apply to the 27 member states of the European Union plus their neighbours Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein.
The EU legislation governing the certificate comes into force on July 1 and initially lasts for 12 months.
CHINA AND JAPAN
China unveiled a vaccine passport in March that could be accessed through WeChat — an app almost everyone in China uses, but it applies only to Chinese vaccines such as Sinovac and Sinopharm.
According to China’s Foreign Ministry, the app allows people both in China and overseas who have had a Chinese-made vaccine to verify the certificate by scanning a QR code.
As an example of how this works in the Asian region, Bloomberg reported that Hong Kong citizen Marie Cheung, who travels to mainland China regularly for business, planned to sign up for Sinovac for easier movement across borders.
Taiwan and Japan are currently looking at developing a digital health certificate for similar reasons to allow business within Asia.
AIRLINE VACCINATION APPS
Airline industry group the International Air Transport Association has a smartphone IATA Travel Pass, which airlines including Qantas, Japan Airlines, Emirates, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have signed up for.
Meanwhile, Cathay Pacific, JetBlue, United and Lufthansa are on-board with CommonPass.
Travellers use the apps to verify their Covid-19 test results at their destination.
Both passes allow travellers to verify their vaccine status when they check in online.
WHAT ABOUT PRIVACY?
The text adopted by the EU member states for their vaccine passport provides that the certificate only contain the data “strictly necessary” to oversee safe travel and that the app respect Europe’s GDPR personal data protection laws.
The data are not transmitted between countries, only the key that allows the certificate’s authenticity needs to be transferred.
Data are not retained by the countries of arrival or transit once verified.
WHERE THE WHO STANDS ON JAB PASSPORTS
The World Health Organisation does not recommend vaccination proof as a requirement for international travel, citing unequal distribution of vaccines between countries with many poorer nations lagging behind in inoculation.
However, the WHO is looking at interim guidance for developing a “Smart Vaccination Certificate.”
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Originally published as Which countries are introducing vaccine passports and what it means for international travel
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