A blockchain-based electronic COVID-19 vaccination certificate with the same force as the paper one
According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters, a blockchain-based electronic COVID-19 vaccination certificate carrying the same legal force as the paper certificate will be issued soon. Once these digital certificates arrive, only the public key that can decrypt the encrypted certificate is kept on the blockchain, and third parties can check only limited information — a substantial boost to security. Other countries are busy exploring and pushing ahead with vaccine passports of their own, while the WHO takes a negative view of them.
Here is the article covering the news. You can read it in full at the link at the bottom of this post.
Digital Vaccination Certificates to Be Issued to Vaccinated People as QR Codes
People vaccinated against COVID-19 in Korea will be issued a blockchain-form digital vaccination certificate. The expectation is that you will be able to keep it on your smartphone and show it whenever a certificate is required, much as you do a QR check-in at a multi-use facility.
"By April we will make it possible to issue and store an electronic COVID-19 vaccination certificate with the same legal force as the paper certificate, encrypted, on personal smartphones"
"Through a certificate app linked to the vaccination system of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), people will be able to verify their identity, receive a vaccination certificate, and store it encrypted on their own smartphone"
"We will allow people vaccinated against COVID-19 to present the vaccination certificate stored on their phone as a QR code wherever it is needed, while permitting only some information, such as when vaccination was completed, to be looked up"
Central Disease Control Headquarters, March 15
Vaccine passports are being pursued overseas as well. The Israeli government is issuing a green pass to everyone who has completed a second dose. Since last month it has eased lockdown measures, allowing only green pass holders into some facilities such as gyms and swimming pools. Europe is reviewing vaccine passports too. The European Commission plans to submit a digital vaccine passport bill to parliament shortly and to build a vaccine passport system within three months. Tourism-dependent countries such as Greece and Spain are said to be enthusiastic about adopting them.
The World Health Organization (WHO), however, has come out against them, citing reasons including uncertainty over how long immunity from the vaccines will last and the fact that vaccination has not progressed far enough worldwide.
Practical and ethical considerations are needed to make use of vaccine certification. Requiring a vaccine passport of people who cannot be vaccinated for particular reasons could be unfair, so the WHO will oppose it for now
Mike Ryan, head of the WHO emergency response team
- Source: JoongAng Ilbo
- Original: https://news.joins.com/article/24012368
