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Overview
Globally, we see ongoing discussions on how vaccine-certificates could be part of the effort to reopen the economy and an increasing need collaborate and support cross border verifications of vaccine certificates.
This led to the idea to leverage on the Digital Government Exchange (DGX), a platform that the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office and the Government Technology Agency Singapore formed in 2016. DGX facilitates dialogue amongst GCIOs and public sector leaders from over 10 countries/cities and institutions[1]. DGX aims to build a community of like-minded digital governments and smart cities that would facilitate mutual learning and sharing and explore areas for future collaboration. A special DGX Safe Travel working group[2] was formed to discuss mutual recognition and drive inter-operability in this area.
This blog details member countries’ implementation of digital vaccine certificates to facilitate travel and takeaways. In general, solutions can be grouped into three broad categories, namely generation of digital health certificates, cross-border verification, and open-sourced technical specifications or frameworks. Multi-lateral organisations and private associations have also been quick to weigh in on possible e-wallet solutions which help to store and manage COVID-19 tests or vaccine certificates. These includes the IATA Travel Pass, CommonPass and ICC AOKpass.
(A)Generation of Digital Health Certificates
The acceptance of health certificates as proof of eligibility to travel has gathered pace, with several countries building their own digital health certificate systems and modelling them on other such solutions concurrently in development at the international level. Besides proof of vaccination, proof of a negative COVID-19 test or evidence of recovery serves as supporting travel documents.
- Israel’s GreenPass and Singapore’s HealthCerts were implemented in the first half of 2021, with the European Union’s Digital COVID Certificate EU DCC (for France, Sweden and other EU member states ) scheduled for mid-2021. Other Members are in the planning phase with many focused domestically as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Overview of Member’s Solutions
- Canada plans to leverage its contact tracing app ArriveCAN to return a “Yes” or “No” for vaccination status. There are plans for ArriveCAN to injest both hi-fidelity digital and verifiable PVCs as well as low-fidelity (pictures of PVC) ones. Other Members are developing solutions to display these health certificates as QR codes which can be produced in a digital or hardcopy form for example:
- Australian citizens will be able to print their health certificates, display them on their mobile devices (e.g. via Apple or Google wallet) or display hardcopies issued to citizens without access to smartphones. Digital access to citizen’s immunisation information will be facilitated through the Australian Government’s myGov platform.
- Israel’s ‘Green Pass’[3] can be displayed on an Israeli Health Ministry app with a function to print or upload to a website/portal, enables access to leisure facilities such as gyms and hotels. Nearly half of the population is currently in possession of the Green Pass. The QR code can be scanned by off the shelf scanners but the verification process requires a software module which can be based on open source.
- EU’s DCC can be presented as a QR code which a traveller can choose to carry as a digital or paper certificate. It aims to allow Europeans to travel easily between the 27 member states. At the end of May 2021, France was the first country in the EU to have a system up through TousAntiCovid app which has approxmiately 15 million users enables the self-upload of vaccine certificates, negative COVID-19 test results and recovery status to their smartphone by scanning the QR code on the test result form or via an SMS link. Sweden’s Digital COVID Certificate is part of, and has contributed to, the EU Digital Covid Certificate. Information for the vaccination certificate is retrieved from a national vaccination registry to formulate a digital vaccine cert which will be sent to the user’s secure digital mailbox unlocked using their eID. Sweden has open-sourced its solution[4].
- Singapore’s HealthCerts[5] (vaccine, negative COVID-19 test result) has been designed as an open standard, in order to promote adoption and inter-operability. It is based on OpenAttestation (OA)[6] framework, an open source framework which uses blockchain to issue cryptographically trustworthy documents which can be verified independently without the need for proprietary software equipment. OpenAttestation has been used in several sectors including educational certificates, electronic trade documents, and COVID-19 pre-departure test certificates.
- From May 2021, UK’s existing National Health Service (NHS) phone app can display vaccine certificates when travelling abroad. This is only available for people in England who have had two doses of an approved vaccine. There are plans to add PCR and serology test information.
In compliance with international standards, members have indicated plans to comply with the guidelines set by the WHO when it is confirmed.
(B)Verification of Digital Health Certificates
For cross-border travel, countries need to verify that digital certificates are issued by a competent authority, have not been tampered with, and are valid (not revoked).
Options for verification such as scanning the QR code with a verifier app is available. Majority of Members are developing proprietary verifiers including EC’s Digital COVID Certificate which can be decrypted through a public key and allows offline verification. Sweden’s verifier app has been open sourced and France’s TousAntiCovid Vérif, has 2 modes for verification for activities in France and another for transportation companies. Singapore’s HealthCerts can be read by any QR code scanner (without the need for a proprietary software) and rendered in a human-readable format, verified through www.verify.gov.sg. Singapore is exploring the addition of an offline QR version for health certificates.
Proprietary verifier apps would require customs officers to know which app to use depending on the country need not cope with multiple versions of apps. The consideration is to push the heavy lifting to the authorities or certificate issuer for easy verification downstream.
Other options include Israel’s approach of pre-departure submission by uploading digital health certificates for pre-arrival verification, avoiding the scenario of being turned away upon arrival. Several commercial digital wallet solutions such as the ICC AOKpass allow passengers to upload their travel documents as part of the check-in process ahead of arrival. For example, Singapore’s HealthCerts can be viewed on the AOKPass.
Members have published their technical specifications and frameworks so that companies and Governments can adapt the source code and develop their own solutions. such as EU’s DCC, Singapore’s HealthCerts, and UK’s Global Trust Framework.
There is a need for multilateral discussions through platforms such as DGX
Resuming international travel would not only bring about economic benefits, such as tourism and business, but would also connect families and loved ones that have been separated for over a year since this pandemic began. To facilitate cross-border travel, platforms such as the DGX Safe Travel Working Group are important platforms to facilitate discussions. This is especially so with technical discussions, to ensure that as and when we are ready, policy-wise, to resume travel with countries, implementation can be hastened.
As a next step, Members will discuss the approach for mutual recognition of digital certificates such as online If policy decisions are ready, it could include outliers that required further thought such as recognition of vaccination overseas, timing between first and second dose, vaccines not approved by incoming country, etc.
By Chan Cheow Hoe, Singapore’s Government Chief Digital Technology Officer and Members of the Digital Government Exchange Safe Travel Working Group
Kindly contact the DGX Secretariat at @email or @email should you have further queries.
[1] DGX members include Amsterdam, Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, New York, Sweden, the United Kingdom (UK), the United Nations (UN), and the World Bank.
[2] DGX Safe Travel working group members include Australia, Canada, Israel, New Zealand, Sweden, UK and UN DESA.
[3] Due to low infection rates, Israel lifted the Green Pass restrictions within the country as of 1 June 2021
[5] Singapore’s HealthCerts
[6] OpenAttestation Framework can be found at www.openattestation.com