The Philippines was set to release “digitized vaccine certificates” by end-August or early September, according to DOH.
On Tuesday, the Department of Health (DOH) said that the Philippines was set to release “digitized vaccine certificates” by the “end of August or beginning of September”.
In an online press conference, Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje said that the Philippines was set to release “digitized vaccine certificates” as more countries developed vaccine passes in order to facilitate safe travel during the coronavirus pandemic.
Cabotaje, also the chair of the National Vaccination Operations Center, added that the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) was in the process of developing the digital solution that will show the COVID-19 vaccination status of an individual.
“By the end of August or beginning of September, we hope we can already start automation. We will have the DICT issue the digitized vaccine certificate. We want to provide persons with vaccine certificates when they go abroad [so that] mas madali and more standard yung ating vaccination certificates,” said Cabotaje.
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Cabotaje didn’t say if a digital vaccine certificate will be a QR code, but said that more details about it will be released in “2 or 3 weeks”.
While some travelers had been using the International Certificate of Vaccination (ICV) from the Bureau of Quarantine in lieu of a COVID-19 vaccine pass, Cabotaje said that the document wasn’t a travel requirement. In addition, Cabotaje said that the ICV was originally used to verify the COVID-19 vaccination status of travelers against “Yellow fever”.
Meanwhile, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles earlier said that even if travelers from overseas had been inoculated against COVID-19, they still have to undergo a 10-day mandatory quarantine and swab tests in order to ensure that they’re not carrying foreign COVID-19 variants into the Philippines.
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