According to The Star, Singapore may become the first foreign country to recognise MySejahtera as Malaysia’s “vaccination passport”.
MySejahtera is a contact tracing app developed by the Malaysian government that tracks the vaccination status of locals.
It is also the official channel that supports the National COVID-19 Immunisation Program by the Malaysian government that offers vaccination registration, appointment, and issuance of COVID-19 Immunisation digital certificate.
Malaysia’s National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme Coordinating Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said that the nation’s talks with Singapore on the recognition of the vaccination passport is “almost finalised”.
This means that fully-vaccinated Malaysians may soon use the app as a confirmation of their vaccination status, allowing them to enter Singapore.
However, both countries have not settled on a date for the scheme to be rolled out.
“Once you have the yellow profile on your MySejahtera, you are fully vaccinated. We will use the QR code once the Covid-19 Emergency Management Technical Committee recommends allowing certain freedoms (such as international travel) that are not currently possible,” Khairy told The Star.
According to Khairy, Malaysia is on track to reaching its target to vaccinate 80 per cent of its population.
Meanwhile, more than half the population in Singapore have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccines, said Health Minister Ong Ye Kung on Saturday (June 19).
In Singapore, citizens can track their vaccination status and check-in to places using the TraceTogether app.
Digital health passport trials
Various organisations in Singapore have been trialing the use of digital health passports to allow for travelling in a post-Covid world.
For example, Taiwan airline EVA Air announced in March that it would be collaborating with Singapore-based technology company Affinidi to utilise its digital credential verification solution to verify passengers’ Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test results.
The service will be used for EVA’s Singapore to Taipei flights, and the airline has plans to extend this service to flights from Malaysia and Indonesia to Taipei.
In January, Singapore Airlines (SIA) started a trial with Affinidi as well. Under the trial, travellers on SIA flights from Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur will be given either a digital certificate or paper health certificates with a QR code if they take their COVID-19 tests at selected clinics.
Currently, Singapore requires travelers to present QR codes for PCR test results from medical institutions.
Covid-19 is a key content pillar for Vulcan Post. You can follow our coverage on Covid-19 here.
Featured Image Credit: MobiHealthNews
