The Ministry of Health will issue 'vaccine passports' to citizens starting April 15th.

At the conference, Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan stated that, fulfilling the task assigned by the Government, the systems are now ready to deploy the issuance of "vaccine passports" to the people.

According to a representative from the Department of Administrative Management of Social Order (Ministry of Public Security), as of March 30th, the COVID-19 vaccination management platform had sent approximately 154 million doses, with about 41 million doses yet to be sent (these are old doses lacking basic information and therefore cannot be sent). Of the 154 million doses sent, the Ministry of Public Security has verified the information for 112,569,288 doses, while the remaining 41,431,113 doses were verified incorrectly.

Accelerating the vaccination process is one of the tasks being actively implemented. (Photo: Tien Hung)

Regarding solutions for cleaning up data and adding old data entries, a representative from the Ministry of Public Security suggested that vaccination facilities be responsible for reviewing and coordinating with local police to supplement, verify, and authenticate information and enter data into the system.

According to Mr. Do Truong Duy, Director of the Information Technology Department (Ministry of Health), preparations for the implementation of "vaccine passports" have been largely completed. People who have been vaccinated, accurately declared their information, and whose data has been entered into the vaccination system by vaccination facilities and verified with the National Population Database, will be issued a "vaccine passport" without further procedures.

"Vaccine passports" will be displayed on the Electronic Health Book application, PC-Covid, or can be looked up on the Ministry of Health's electronic portal.

For citizens who have not been issued a "vaccine passport" due to missing or incorrect information, they should report it on the COVID-19 Vaccination Portal (at https://tiemchungcovid19.gov.vn) or contact the vaccination facility directly for supplementation or correction. A representative from the Ministry of Health stated that citizens should now check their vaccination information on the Electronic Health Book application.

To ensure the interests of vaccinated individuals, Deputy Minister Tran Van Thuan requested vaccination facilities nationwide to review, supplement, and verify COVID-19 vaccination information, and to fully and accurately input the data of vaccinated individuals into the system for issuing "vaccine passports" and to connect and share data with the National Population Database.

A "vaccine passport" is essentially an electronically signed confirmation of vaccination. This certificate is issued according to European standards so that when people enter or travel and need to provide a vaccination certificate, it serves as a travel document, making it easier for them to enter other countries.

Previously, people's vaccination information was not standardized and had not been updated according to European criteria, so it could not be used when people entered or exited the country.

Passengers at Vinh Airport. Photo courtesy of Tien Dong.

In the coming period, the Ministry of Health will continue working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to negotiate and reach an agreement with countries that have recognized Vietnam's vaccination certificates. From there, they will determine which application will best facilitate citizens' use when entering and exiting the country, as well as which countries will be able to access the data on our application. Based on that, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will provide specific guidance or announcements to the public.

The vaccine passport issuance process consists of 3 steps:

Step 1: Vaccination facilities review, verify, and authenticate the information of people receiving vaccinations on the vaccination platform.

Step 2: After vaccination centers review and verify the accuracy of the vaccination information, they will digitally sign to confirm the vaccination details. The data will then be transferred to the system for issuing "vaccine passport" certificates.

Step 3: The Department of Preventive Medicine (Ministry of Health) is responsible for centralized digital signing to issue "vaccine passports".

As of April 4th, Bach Mai Hospital had issued vaccination certificates to 2,013 individuals with nearly 6,000 injections. In Ho Chi Minh City, Gia An 115 General Hospital had issued certificates to 425 individuals.

According to statistics on the COVID-19 Vaccination Portal, as of April 1st, over 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered nationwide. The vaccination coverage rate for people aged 18 and over is nearly 100% for the first dose, 99% for the second dose, and approximately 50% for the third dose.

For those aged 12 to 17, the vaccination rate for the first dose is 99%, and for the second dose is 94%. The Ministry of Health and local authorities are also preparing to vaccinate children aged 5 to under 12 against COVID-19 in early April.

Hien Minh