Vietnam to issue e-vaccine passports

Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan spoke at the March 22 conference on the implementation of e-vaccine passports

At a conference held on March 22 on the implementation of electronic COVID-19 vaccine passports, Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan said, “The Ministry of Health (MoH) is working with relevant agencies on a trial of these passports and an IT system for granting vaccination certificates in Vietnam. The ministry is currently asking for comments from cities and provinces to ensure its efficiency in the upcoming time.”

This is part of the cooperation between the MoH and global health NGO PATH, with the support of the UK Embassy in Vietnam. The MoH and PATH collaborated in national vaccination data in line with the standards issued by the World Health Organization, the EU, and the UK to create favourable conditions for domestic and international travelling.

Thuan emphasised, “COVID-19 promoted IT application. Innovative approaches in this period will accelerate the use of digitalised systems and quick adaption in the context that the world is approaching the new normal.”

Representatives from cities and provinces attended the conference online

At present, Vietnam’s vaccination coverage is high compared with the region and the world. Vietnam is also recovering its socioeconomic activities, and the country has officially reopened all tourism activities from March 15.

According to Nguyen Ba Hung, deputy director of the medical data centre under the MoH’s Department of Information Technology, the ministry has piloted the issuance of e-vaccine passports in three hospitals, namely Hospital K, Bach Mai, and Hospital E with good initial results.

"It is expected that next week, the ministry will hold a meeting to launch the project nationwide," Hung added.

The MoH last December issued a decision on promulgating the template and procedures for issuing vaccine passports that would make it more convenient for people to travel and do business. Vietnam has so far reached an agreement on mutual recognition of vaccine passports with 17 countries to date, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.