Facilitate traveling in pandemic: China introduces digital vaccination card

Facilitate traveling in pandemic
China introduces digital vaccination card

The EU is planning to do it, China has already done it: The People's Republic is the first country to introduce a kind of digital passport for vaccinated people. In addition to information on the holder's vaccination status, it should also be able to display test results and at some point even enable cross-border travel.

China has introduced a digital corona vaccination card for travelers. The certificate, which has been available since Monday via the Chinese online service Wechat, shows information on the user's vaccinations and test results. The program should help with the "global economic recovery" and also "facilitate cross-border travel," said a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Beijing.

This means that other countries can also use a QR code to read user data when they enter the country, as reported by the state-run Chinese news agency Xinhua. So far, the document, which is also available in paper form, applies only to the Chinese. In addition, it is not yet mandatory.

With the certificate, the Chinese government wants to be the first country in the world to present a vaccination card for travel. The newspaper "Global Times" reported from Beijing on Sunday that China was ready to discuss the mutual recognition of Covid-19 vaccinations with other countries. China's State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that this could "facilitate the resumption and safeguarding of an orderly exchange between people."

The newspaper relates Wang's statements to European considerations to introduce a uniform EU passport for vaccinated people: that the heads of state and government of the EU discussed the possibility of issuing vaccination cards for EU citizens in order to allow travel to be resumed within the EU at the end of February Making the continent possible by summer would have sparked a worldwide discussion about the possibility and feasibility of this mechanism.

The EU Commission wants to present the draft law for a "digital green passport" on March 17th, which will record corona vaccinations, Covid diseases and negative tests. The World Health Organization rejects the project. There are serious concerns: It is uncertain how long an immunity will last. Also, a vaccine "does not necessarily prevent the infection of other people".

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