7 Standards to Enhance Effectiveness of COVID Passport Verification

COVID-19 has greatly affected the travel industry and restricted social gatherings considering the high transmission rate of acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent. Thankfully, vaccination has given the exemption of movement and social gatherings. In addition, COVID passport verification, a vaccination-proof policy, has allowed businesses to resume normal operations.

Digital COVID certificate verification has recently been deployed in the United Kingdom (UK), especially in non-medical settings like public houses, sports events, restaurants, and other places where social distancing is challenging to maintain.

Passport COVID Verification — The Aims it is Serving

The disastrous effects of the pandemic have definitely left their mark on all businesses globally. The travel industry was no exception. To counter the impacts of COVID-19, vaccine passports promise to boost tourism and expedite international travel.

Some people, however, disliked the idea of making vaccines a mandatory step and argued that this would inhibit travel for those who do not choose to get vaccinated. In addition, the current situation displays that vaccinated individuals might get reinfected with SARS-CoV-2, which further reinforces that it may impede the healthy or immune individuals from social events or international travel.

Despite the number of individuals and their concerns regarding vaccine passport verification, a recent study has revealed that COVID passport verification in the UK has obtained utmost support concerning the regularization of international travel.

The main aim addressed by the vaccine passport verification is to bring back the pre-COVID-19 travel and activities without compromising personal or public health. Following are the 7 basic criteria to enhance the effectiveness of COVID passport verification protocols:

1: To Serve Actual Proof of Vaccination to the Holder

COVID passport must offer the following two purposes:

• To confirm that individuals who go through the COVID passport verification process are safe from disease and are free to carry out the activities for which these passports are mandatory
• The holders of the COVID certificate verification neither can become infectious nor transmit the SARS-CoV-2 to others

2: Be Internationally Viable

The benefits of COVID passport verification can be fully obtained if the holder, once gone through the verification process, does not have to repeat the method. The ICVP (international certificate of vaccination or prophylaxis) or yellow card is an example in this area. Therefore, the World Health Organization has established standards and a trust framework to provide integrated solutions for digitized COVID passport verification.

3: Adhere to Security Protocols

International and industry-supported measures must execute verifiable international standards. Digital COVID passports are an initiative towards digital solutions possessing QR codes that do not reveal personal credentials. COVID passport verification service ensures that verification done through QR codes does not let the fraudsters steal the individual’s personal information.

4: Have Determined Applications

The process of COVID passport verification is necessary to enter restaurants, shopping malls, healthcare centres, or travel internationally. The verification process must be clearly defined as it can create discrimination in accessing various services. Additional concerns may include whether the vaccination data is being employed for unforeseen reasons like immigration authorities and more.

5: Must use Sophisticated Technology

COVID passport verification process must use technology to eradicate the probability of any type of fraud in the identification process. Since the arrival of vaccines, perpetrators have used every trick to dodge the system. But the advanced technologies being employed in the vaccine passport verification can eliminate all those chances of scams.

6: Meet legal Standards

COVID passport verification should fulfil the regulatory demands and standards set by compliance professionals. The regulations include COVID-19 legislation, data protection laws, occupational health and safety laws, and equity and discrimination laws.

7: Meet Ethical Standards

Basic ethical standards must need further scrutiny like:

• Examining whether vaccine passports are comprehensive
• Possess precisely defined applications and minimum data collection
• Relevant sharing like who would gain access to the data
• Where and how vaccine certificate links with other sorts of data
• Preventing discrimination and minimizing enduring differences

Summarising it all

With the pandemic situation around the globe, COVID passport verification is inevitable to travel around the world. The airports of all the countries are employing advanced methods to verify vaccination passports. EU COVID passport verification encourages people towards vaccinations to promise a COVID-free world.