Illustrative image. – File photo

Hanoi-based hospital E also started to issue vaccine passports to people who have been vaccinated at the hospital when their full information is available on the vaccination management platform.

According to the Ministry of Health, through the pilot issuance of vaccine passports at the two above-mentioned hospitals, the order of issuance of electronic vaccine passports in accordance with the Ministry’s regulations issued in December 2021 has gone along smoothly and passports are designed as per international standard format.

It is expected that early next week, the Ministry of Health will hold a conference about issuing vaccine passports to 63 provinces and cities. The issuance of vaccine passports will be done nationwide after the conference.

According to Mr. Nguyen Ba Hung, Deputy Director of the Health Data Center under the Ministry of Health’s Information Technology Department, vaccine passports are, in essence, documents that record a person’s inoculation history and personal information such as full name, date of birth, nationality, number of injections, injection date, dose number, vaccine type, allowing other countries to have an easier border check for vaccinations.

The essence of the electronic vaccine passport is that each citizen will have a QR code like the QR code on the current PC-Covid application, but the only difference is that Vietnam is using the standards of the World Health Organization and the European Union to help verify each other's information when going abroad, said Mr. Nguyen Ba Hung.

At the same time, he revealed that a vaccine passport will be updated on the electronic health book application, PC-Covid, or the Ministry of Health’s portal. A vaccine passport has a validity of 12 months. When a vaccine passport expires, the system will automatically generate a new QR code.

Regarding the public concern about the fact that many people have been vaccinated against Covid-19 but currently there is no information on the system, Mr. Nguyen Ba Hung said that people need to send feedback to the national vaccination system or they should contact the vaccination facility directly because if their vaccination information isn’t available on the system, they aren’t eligible for receiving vaccine passport. Those who have reported losing their vaccination certificate but their vaccination information on the system has been updated, they are still granted vaccine passports.

Moreover, Mr. Nguyen Ba Hung said the Ministry of Health is coordinating with related agencies to build an information page that allows people to look up vaccine passports and will publish it next week to help those who do not use or can’t use smartphones. People can print on paper when they want to travel abroad.

The Department of Preventive Medicine will digitally sign the injections and people will receive a QR code without having to do anything else. However, people are recommended to fully and accurately declare all information to ensure their future benefits related to the issuance of a vaccination certificate, as well as the issuance of an electronic receipt or a vaccine passport.

Currently, about 80 million people have given incorrect information on citizen identification or have not been updated in the national vaccination system. Therefore, in its document to municipal and provincial people’s committees, the Ministry of Health asked local administrations to direct departments of health to coordinate with police forces to review, verify and fulfill additional information. Through inspection, many localities have not yet completed updates on vaccine injection, so those with wrong information will not be able to issue vaccine passports.

Source: Sai Gon Giai Phong

Digital vaccine passport to be issued nationwide

A vaccine passport will be issued based on information on the national vaccination management database, according to the Ministry of Health (MOH).

Which countries have recognized Vietnam’s vaccine passport?

Ten countries have so far endorsed Vietnam’s vaccine passport to facilitate travel between their countries and Vietnam, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said at a press briefing in Hanoi on January 20.