DICT seeks to begin issuing COVID-19 vaccine certificates by August

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said Saturday it is looking to begin issuing COVID-19 vaccine certificates to full-vaccinated individuals by early August.

Interviewed on state-run PTV’s Laging Handa briefing, DICT Undersecretary Manny Caintic called on local government units (LGUs) to hasten the encoding of their constituent’s vaccination information in the agency’s verification database system.

Caintic said LGUs have until July 31 to complete the encoding of vaccinees’ information on the Vaccine Information Management System (VIMS).

“Kung mai-submit na ng mga LGU ang kanilang mga listahan come July 31 ay pwede na tayo mag-issue ng vaccine certificates at pwede ‘yan gamitin for international travel,” he said.

(If LGUs submit their lists come July 31 then we can issue vaccine certificates which can be used for international travel)

“By August, early August, pwede na natin ilunsad ang vaccine certificate para sa ganon, ‘pag mag-request ang isang tao ng vaccine certificate andoon ang record niya most likely (we can launch the vaccine certificates so that when a person requests for its his/her record is uploaded most likely),” he added.

The DICT official said the issuance of vaccine certificates complies with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) digital certificate standards, recognized by several countries.

He added that the agency’s partners for the vaccination status verification system are the WHO and the International Air Transport Association.

Vaccination cards issued by LGUs can be used for domestic travel but the vaccine certificates issued by the DICT is a certification from the Republic of the Philippines that a person is full-vaccinated, which will be recognized by many countries, according to the DICT official.

Caintic said the vaccine certificates to be used by the DICT cannot be faked as the quick response code to be generated is unique to each individual.

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

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Alexei Nograles, on Saturday, also urged local government units to hasten the encoding of vaccine recipients’ information in the verification database system created by the DICT. — DVM, GMA News