Vietnam is about to issue electronic vaccine passports

Next week, the Health Data Center, the Information Technology Department, the Ministry of Health will hold a conference to move forward to deploying the issuance of electronic vaccine passports nationwide.

That information was shared by Mr. Nguyen Ba Hung, Deputy Director of the Health Data Center, Information Technology Department, Ministry of Health on the afternoon of March 22.

Specifically, from December 20, 2021, the Ministry of Health issued Decision No. 5772/QD-BYT on Promulgating the Form and the process of issuing the “Vaccine Passport”. After this decision, the Ministry of Health actively cooperated with the Ministry of Information and Communications and related agencies to build a vaccine passport certification system as well as modify and supplement the digital signature function on the vaccination management platform. strains.

Recently, the Ministry of Health has piloted at 3 medical facilities, namely Bach Mai Hospital, K Hospital and E Hospital, the results show that the system is ready to respond well to the implementation of electronic vaccine passport issuance. .

An electronic vaccine passport has the same meaning as a paper vaccine passport. Photo: AB

“In the next week, the Health Data Center, the Information Technology Department, and the Ministry of Health will hold a conference to proceed with the issuance of electronic vaccine passports,” said Mr. Hung.

According to Mr. Hung, the electronic vaccine passport has the same meaning as the paper vaccine passport, making it easier for people to travel and trade internationally. Currently, according to information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Vietnam’s vaccine passport form has been recognized by 17 countries.

Information about the people’s desire to receive a vaccine passport, the Deputy Director of the Health Data Center said that recently, the unit received a lot of questions from people: “When will the vaccine passport be issued? ?”. There are people who go directly to the Department of Preventive Medicine and the Department of Information Technology to ask about this. Especially from March 15, when our country opens to international tourism, the demand will be even greater and will certainly increase.

Answering the problems in issuing electronic vaccine passports, especially when the number of people who have been vaccinated is very large, Mr. Hung said that according to Decision 5772, vaccination facilities will perform digital signatures. However, in terms of technical solutions, the Health Data Center, the Information Technology Department, the Ministry of Health have developed two options.

One is to allow vaccination facilities to perform digital signatures. Second, depending on the actual situation of each locality, the Department of Health or the Center for Disease Control will assign digital signatures. “In fact, digital signing is quite simple, allowing to sign in batches, can sign thousands of people at once, not choose each person to sign. We assess that in terms of the process, the issuance of an electronic vaccine passport is very simple,” added Mr. Hung.

A representative of the Health Data Center, the Information Technology Department, the Ministry of Health also said that in terms of the process, people when going to vaccinate must declare accurate information. Responsibility of vaccination facilities must be responsible for reviewing information and connecting to the national database on population to verify information of the people.

“The whole process of issuing an electronic vaccine passport is done by the vaccination facility, and the Department of Preventive Medicine is the focal point to digitally sign it. All people who have been vaccinated and have information on the vaccination management platform will have a QR code, which will be displayed on the COVID-19 PC application or the electronic Health Book for control when going abroad. “- Mr. Hung emphasized.

Currently, the Information Technology Department, the Ministry of Health is working with the Ministry of Information and Communications to build a passport display function. Vaccine. If people already have the correct information on this application, it will be automatically shown the vaccine passport. The result is a QR code of international standards, which can be used to go abroad.