Asia Is Launching Vaccine Passport
To combat the pandemic in 2021 and save tourism, some Asian countries reliant on tourism like Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand are developing vaccine passports or identification cards that can serve as proof of vaccination to governments and businesses, including airlines.
In collaboration with Affinidi, a global investment firm headquartered in Singapore, Malaysia’s Immunitee Health Passport has become the country’s first health passport recently. Via Affinidi’s digital credential platform, tourists can be accepted into Singapore upon being verified and cleared. The Immunitee Health Passport provides a clear system containing personal immunisation records and vaccine data, helping to verify the authenticity of Covid-19 tests and vaccines.
Meanwhile, some Korean companies such as Gooddoc are currently developing their own vaccine passports as well. In January 2021, Gooddoc announced that it will launch a QR code-based vaccine passport service - Gooddoc Pass. Like Immunitee Health Passport, it also aids the clearance for travellers at border health checkpoints and was developed with the objective to provide travellers with a digital record of complete vaccination history.
These digital health passports are blockchain-based applications, built on a highly secured end-to-end vaccine registry management system that provides a common vaccine tracking system. The data is permanently stored on the blockchain. It is noticeable that the vaccine passport will give both travellers and countries assurance that safe travelling is taking place.
However, many information technology experts are concerned that with the purpose of tracking vaccinations, the information collected in such tremendous amounts may lead to governments monitoring individuals’ private information via smartphones. Furthermore, there's another barrier. According to Evernym, the global passport system took more than 50 years to develop. In order for vaccine passports to become a practical tool adopted internationally, a standardized platform that crosses all boundaries is needed. Thus, the development of vaccine passports is still in an early stage and there are still different concerns to be resolved.
vaccine passport
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