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Ian Christopher N Rocha, How to avoid fake COVID-19 vaccine passports as a travel requirement?, Journal of Public Health, Volume 44, Issue 4, December 2022, Pages e608–e609, https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdab308
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Abstract
The Philippines has recently eased its local travel restrictions among fully vaccinated individuals. Filipinos who wish to travel locally will only need to present their vaccination cards as their passports for interzonal and intrazonal movement within the country. However, a few days after the release of the new resolution pertaining to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination card as a travel requirement, the Department of Health suggested to review the latest policy since many local government units expressed their disapproval in the new protocol. One of the issues raised is the authenticity of COVID-19 vaccination cards. These cards vary per local government and most of them do not have machine-readable codes nor security features. Thus, they can be easily falsified and counterfeited. In addition, the local governments do not have access to the national database of the COVID-19 vaccination status of every individual, which can be extremely challenging for them. In this correspondence, recommendations were provided to avoid fake COVID-19 vaccination cards as passports for travel purposes.
Dear Editor,
In two recent letters published in the Journal of Public Health, the authors highlighted the possible usage of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination cards as a travel requirement, as well as its advantages and disadvantages.1,2 In relation, this current correspondence discusses the recent developments regarding the COVID-19 vaccination cards in the Philippines.
Recently, the Philippines has eased its local travel restrictions among fully vaccinated residents. Individuals may only be considered as fully vaccinated if they have been inoculated for at least 2 weeks after receiving the last dosage of a two-dose vaccine or only dosage of a single-dose vaccine approved by the Philippine Food and Drug Administration or the World Health Organization.3 The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) stated that individuals who wish to travel will only need to present their vaccination cards as their passports for interzonal and intrazonal movement within the country.4 However, 5 days after releasing the resolution on COVID-19 vaccination card as travel requirement, the Department of Health (DOH) suggested to review the latest policy since many local government units (LGUs) expressed their opposition in the new guideline.5 Prior to the new resolution, LGUs only accept travelers with negative result of reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test, the gold standard for COVID-19 testing.
One of the issues raised by the LGUs is the authenticity of the vaccination card.5 According to the IATF, a COVID-19 domestic vaccination card is valid if it has been issued by a legitimate vaccinating establishment. However, if this is not available, another alternative is a certificate of quarantine completion issued by the Bureau of Quarantine showing the individual’s vaccination status.3 With this validity guideline, the possibility of fraud might be an issue as vaccination cards are being suggested by the IATF as a travel requirement in lieu of an RT-PCR test report. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 vaccination cards in the Philippines vary per LGU and most of them do not have machine-readable codes nor security features. Thus, a vaccination card can be easily falsified or forged by someone who is desperate of getting the benefits of having one. In addition, there is also no unified and nationwide database of individuals who have already received and completed the COVID-19 vaccine. Since the LGUs only have access to their own constituent’s COVID-19 vaccination status, this can be extremely challenging for them.
Hence, it is recommended that the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) should coordinate with the LGUs, the DOH and the IATF in creating a nationwide and unified database of COVID-19 vaccination, as well as validating the COVID-19 vaccination cards as passports for travel purposes. It is also beneficial if the LGUs, together with the DICT, can include unique machine-readable codes for every vaccination card to easily detect authentic vaccination cards from fake ones by just electronically scanning the code. Digitalizing vaccination cards can also be an effective strategy in avoiding counterfeit just like the COVID-19 vaccination cards being issued by the City of Manila, the country’s capital. In addition, some LGUs in the National Capital Region such as Quezon City and Makati City have recently added security features in their vaccination cards making them tamperproof and difficult to duplicate.