China, EU to move forward with vaccine passport programmes

China’s foreign ministry is working toward launching certificates that will declare a person’s vaccination status or recent test results, according to The Wall Street Journal

The drive for vaccine passports is picking up pace, as China and the European Union (EU) said they would be moving forward with new programs.

China could encourage the public to voluntarily get vaccinated and gradually issue a new passport for those who have been vaccinated, Zhu Zhengfu, a prominent Chinese lawyer, told the Global Times.

According to The Wall Street Journal, China’s foreign ministry is working toward launching certificates that will declare a person’s vaccination status or recent test results. The European Commission also plans to review proposals for a digital version of a vaccine passport. As a result, many international travellers will likely need to prove they are vaccinated or free of COVID-19.

The aim is to gradually enable them [EU citizens] to move safely in the European Union or abroad — for work or tourism, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the Journal.

On Monday, European Union Commissioner Stella Kyriakides told health ministers during a virtual meeting that mutations could better be tracked if there were more widespread testing and genome sequencing.

In addition, she said, we need to ensure vaccines are administered as quickly as possible so that no vaccines go to waste or are unused.

In the U.S., the Biden administration hasn’t said if vaccine passports will be part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention said that international standards for such a program do not yet exist.

Until then, all air passengers travelling to the U.S., regardless of vaccination or antibody status, are required to provide a negative Covid-19 test result or documentation of recovery, CDC spokeswoman Caitlin Shockey said, per the Journal.