The global COVID picture isn’t pretty on any uncoordinated level

Two years into COVID-19, and the world’s response to the pandemic is largely as scattershot as ever.

Vaccines are highly effective with low rates of serious side effects, and while it would seem obviously the time for nations to be moving in near unison to global vaccine credential standards, that is not the case.

The closest the world has come to the ideal is a recent agreement among 110 nations to accept each other’s digital health passes (rather than creating a standard approach).

India is one of the nations involved in the mutual recognition program, which accepts documents attesting to the bearer being fully vaccinated with Covishield an Indian-licensed version of AstraZeneca’s COVID vaccine.

Others that are accepted in the digital ID program are nationally and World Health Organization-approved vaccines.

People coming from countries that are reciprocating with vaccination certifications can enter participating nations without quarantine, according to reporting by the Press Trust of India. People are required to monitor themselves for symptoms for two weeks after entry.

The United Kingdom is part of India’s certificate reciprocity program, and it is unclear if it will take many more significant regulatory steps. The UK is rejecting domestic calls to increase digital health pass usage.

On one hand, infection rates in some European nations are shooting up. On the other hand, rioting has hit Belgium and the Netherlands in response to new restrictions.

Things are hardly better in the United States, where industry and a few governments are making uncoordinated, sometimes abortive stabs at marginally regional digital health passes.

Meanwhile, the Australian state of South Australia is expected next week to re-open its borders with the help of a digital ID tool designed to check a would-be intrastate traveler’s vaccination status and COVID risk.

Tech publication ZDNet reported that the app, EntryCheck SA, will be ready for download at the end of this week.

A second tool, HealthCheck SA is being readied as well to record symptoms daily and help users get any tests that symptoms might require.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital ID  |  document verification  |  health passes  |  identity verification  |  mobile app  |  standards