All systems ready for September launch of digital COVID-19 vaccine certificate portal —DICT

The portal for the issuance of COVID-19 vaccination certificates to fully vaccinated individuals is ready to go live by September, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said Thursday.

Interviewed on Laging Handa, DICT Undersecretary Emmanuel Caintic said the agency, in coordination with the Department of Health (DOH), is targeting to launch the “VaxCertPH” on the first week of September.

“Okay na ang system. Handa na siya at naka-integrate na sa World Health Organization countries,” Caintic said.

(The system is ready and already integrated into World Health Organization countries.)

The DICT official said the agency is just making sure that local government units (LGUs) operators are properly trained in collecting and submitting their constituents’ vaccination data.

Earlier this month, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. disclosed that the vaccination cards being issued in the Philippines are not accepted in Hong Kong because they are not connected to a single source.

LGU submission

VaxCertPH, developed by the DICT for the DOH, relies on the data submitted by LGUs through the Vaccine Information Management System (VIMS).

Caintic said the submission rate of LGUs to the VIMS is satisfactory.

“Karamihan ng LGUs nakakapag-submit ng 100% records every day,” he said.

(Most of the LGUs are able to submit 100% of records everyday.)

He said the agency is already on the third week of training LGU operators. It aims to train operators or users from various LGUs to enter data properly into the system to lessen the chances of data-related errors on the certification portal.

The DICT is also providing guidance to LGUs on processing data rectification requests coming from their vaccinees.

The digital vaccination certificate will contain a person’s complete name and the date and place of inoculation as well as the brand of vaccine given.

Once the VaxCertPH portal goes live, fully vaccinated individuals can get their digital certificates by providing the details of their vaccination such as brand of vaccine and the date and place of the vaccination.

“‘Pag nag-match agad agarang makukuha ang kanyang vaccine certificate,” Caintic said.

(If the data given match what is in the database, the vaccine certificate will be immediately issued.)

If the data given do not match, he said, it is possible that the vaccinee’s respective LGU has not uploaded the records to the VIMS.

“‘Wag mag-alala kasi tinuturuan natin ang mga LGU ngayon kung paano matulungan ang kanilang mga constituent sa pag-rectify ng mga datos,” Caintic said.

(Don’t worry because we are training our LGUs on how to help their constituents in rectifying their data.)

The DICT official also assured the public that the private information of vaccinees are protected since the issuance of digital certificates are privately encrypted.

He added that the vaccine certificates cannot be faked since all the vaccination records came from and digitally signed by the DOH. —KBK, GMA News