The Smart Vaccination Certificate Working Group was a "consortium focused on establishing standards for a common architecture for a digital smart vaccination certificate" for COVID-19 vaccines.[1] It was a working group of the World Health Organization, and involved collaboration with related initiatives at UNICEF, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety of the European Commission.
History
On December 2, 2020, the World Health Organization put out a call for applications for a new Smart Vaccination Certificate Working Group to "inform the definition of specifications and standards related to interoperability, governance, and design for a personal digital vaccination certificate" in anticipation of the then-upcoming COVID-19 vaccines.[2]
On March 19, 2021, the working group published an interim guidance and technical specifications document. The accompanying press release insisted that the Smart Vaccination Certificate was "not intended to serve as an 'immunity passport,' and furthermore, proof of COVID-19 vaccination is not recommended as a condition of departure or entry for international travel."[3]
On June 4, 2021, the WHO announced that the scope of the working group would expand to include "SARS-CoV-2 testing and COVID-19 recovery status." The group also changed the name of the specifications they were developing from "Smart Vaccination Certificate" to "Digital Documentation of COVID-19 Certificates (DDCC)."[4]
The group published its final report on August 27, 2021.[5]
Publications
- March 19, 2021: Interim guidance for developing a Smart Vaccination Certificate – Release Candidate 1
- August 27, 2021: Digital documentation of COVID-19 certificates: vaccination status: technical specifications and implementation guidance
Smart Vaccination Certificate Working Group. World Health Organization. Retrieved February 13, 2021, from https://web.archive.org/web/20210213164526/https://www.who.int/groups/smart-vaccination-certificate-working-group ↩︎
World Health Organization open call for nomination of experts to contribute to the Smart Vaccination Certificate technical specifications and standards – Application DEADLINE 14 December 2020. (2020, December 2). World Health Organization. https://web.archive.org/web/20210126233223/https://www.who.int/news-room/articles-detail/world-health-organization-open-call-for-nomination-of-experts-to-contribute-to-the-smart-vaccination-certificate-technical-specifications-and-standards-application-deadline-14-december-2020 ↩︎
Call for public comments: Interim guidance for developing a Smart Vaccination Certificate – Release Candidate 1. (2021, March 19). World Health Organization. https://web.archive.org/web/20210320005253/https://www.who.int/news-room/articles-detail/call-for-public-comments-interim-guidance-for-developing-a-smart-vaccination-certificate-release-candidate-1 ↩︎
Revised scope and direction for the Smart Vaccination Certificate and WHO’s role in the Global Health Trust Framework. (2021, June 4). World Health Organization. http://archive.today/2021.06.08-155158/https://www.who.int/news/item/04-06-2021-revised-scope-and-direction-for-the-smart-vaccination-certificate-and-who-s-role-in-the-global-health-trust-framework ↩︎
Digital documentation of COVID-19 certificates: vaccination status: technical specifications and implementation guidance. (2021, August 27). World Health Organization. https://web.archive.org/web/20230708163246/https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-2019-nCoV-Digital_certificates-vaccination-2021.1 ↩︎
