Malacañang urges LGUs to hasten info encoding on DICT’s vaccine status verification system

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Alexei Nograles on Saturday urged local government units to hasten the encoding of vaccine recipients’ information in the verification database system created by the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).

In an interview on Dobol B TV, Nograles disclosed that the DICT has already created the Vaccine Information Management System (VIMS) for the verification of an individual’s vaccination status.

“Ang kinakailangan natin para mag-work ang ating vaccination card na common for all, na digital na at may QR code, is ‘yung success rate or accomplishment rate ng pag-upload. Kasi siyempre 'pag ginagamit mo ngayon, minsan meron tayong mga kababayan na 'pag sinusubukan nila, records not found kasi kailangan i-upload ng LGU,” Nograles said.

(For us to have vaccination cards common to all that are digital and have QR code, the success rate or accomplishment rate of uploading [of information] is crucial. If we use it now, it won’t work for some individuals and records are not found because their information have not yet been encoded by the LGUs.)

“Kaya ito ‘yung tinututukan ng DICT together with the [Department of the Interior and Local Government] ‘no 'yung pagre-remind constantly and pag-push sa LGUs na i-upload 'nyo. May backlog sa uploading e,” he added.

(The DICT and the DILG are closely monitoring this and they constantly remind and push the LGUs to continue uploading because there are backlogs.)

Once the central database is fully established, Nograles said it would be easier for LGUs to verify the vaccination status of an individual as it only requires a smartphone or a printed copy of an individual’s QR code.

The Malacañang official said this system may be eventually used when traveling abroad.

For now, they are still coordinating with the World Health Organization (WHO) to seek guidelines on the international verification system for COVID-19 vaccinations.

He said these guidelines are important for the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

In June, the Department of Foreign Affairs said the international community is already holding discussions on the issuance of international certificates for COVID-19 vaccination similar to the WHO’s yellow card.

On Friday, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said the government is pushing for measures to prevent the proliferation of fake vaccination cards being used as travel passes.

He mentioned that the DICT is already in the process of encoding information of those fully vaccinated into a system. —KG, GMA News