As many parts of the world emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, they are eager to return to a sense of normalcy. This sense of normalcy also includes a return of international tourism that has been shut down since the pandemic began. However, many countries are preferring to take a cautious approach to welcoming tourists. They fear that they may let in individuals infected with the coronavirus. The vaccine passport has arisen in many countries as the policy of choice to help alleviate this fear.
In writing this post, I recognize that vaccine passports can be a controversial issue depending on your location. They are especially controversial in the United States, where several states have passed laws to forbid their use within the state borders. I want to set aside the pros and cons of vaccine passports for this post. Instead, the focus will purely be on what vaccine passports are being rolled out, what form are they taking, and what this means for your future travel.
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What is a Vaccine Passport?
While a vaccine passport can take many forms, most forms are a type of certification that the bearer has been vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. A vaccine passport is generally issued by a government agency or a private company in partnership with a publicly sanctioned verification authority. The certificate is supposed to be a way for entities to know the vaccination status of an individual while protecting against falsified data. Vaccine passports are also an attempt at reducing the manual process of checking vaccination status at the time of entry.
Vaccine passports have become an overused term in media coverage and everyday coversation. This leads many people to include other verification activities (such as previous infection history or negative test results) under the heading of vaccine passports. Even though these don’t meet the definition of a vaccine passport since they check items other than vaccination records, I am going to cover them in this post because they are often included in the regular conversation on the topic.
What Variants of Vaccine Passports are Available?
Several things are currently serving the purpose of a vaccine passport that you may not realize. Many passports are rolling out weekly, as more of the world becomes vaccinated and reopens.
Vaccination Cards
First, while maybe not thought of as a vaccine passport, vaccination paperwork is the most basic “vaccine passport”. Today many countries in the EU (Greece and Iceland for example) and other countries around the world have opened their countries to vaccinated travelers. You may ask, “How are they checking vaccination status?” In the absence of a formal vaccine passport, paper-based vaccination proof is being accepted when entering many countries. In the US, this is the CDC paper vaccination record that was received at the time of innoculation.
Airline-Sponsored Travel Passports
In an effort to reduce the personnel workload of checking paper-based vaccination cards, many airlines or travel consortiums are rolling out their own vaccine passports. The IATA Travel Pass is one such example. As of the first week of June, British Airways has begun to trial the IATA Travel Pass on many of its flights. This passport takes the form of a phone app that customers download prior to travel. Once downloaded, travelers enter their destination into the application which then provides the traveler with entry requirements at their destination.
Travelers are able to upload COVID-19 vaccination proof that will be securely displayed within the app. Alternately, travelers can schedule a test with an approved provider who can send their test results to the app administrators. The app then verifies your test status to the airlines (who have been in charge of verifying test status for most of the pandemic).
Government Rule Travel Passports
One example of a government-mandated vaccine passport that is rolling out is the European Union’s Digital COVID Certificate. This COVID certificate provides proof of one of three COVID-related statuses:
- Vaccination against COVID-19
- Recently recovered from COVID-19
- A recent negative COVID-19 test
The national authorities of the EU Member nations are issuing the certificates. These are generally coming from testing centers or the national health authorities in the EU. Once issued a certificate, an EU citizen is provided a QR code (digital or paper) that they can use to establish their COVID-19 status to allow free movement within EU countries.
Where are Vaccine Passports Required?
Vaccination Passports are in force at the following list of locations. While this is not an exhaustive list, the list includes the major destinations that are currently employing them by law:
- European Union – As of June 1st, seven EU countries started issuing “vaccine passports”. Known by the name “European Union Digital COVID Certificate,” this vaccination passports includes both vaccination and verified COVID test status information. Full EU adoption is planned for July 1st, 2021. These are only initially being rolled out for EU citizens, not foreign visitors.
- New York State – New York State has implemented the Excelsior Pass. The Excelsior Pass is similar to the EU COVID certificate in that it provides digital proof of vaccination or negative test results. In addition to being used for travel, the Excelsior Pass is also being used at entertainment events to verify COVID status prior to entering a venue or being given access to a special COVID-verified section of the venue.
- Japan – The island nation is in the early stages of rolling out a vaccine passport, but has committed to creating one by the end of the summer. The passport is planned to resemble the EU Digital COVID Certificate in implementation.
- US Airlines – The US airlines are all required to check COVID test status upon travel into the United States. These airlines all implement this check in different ways but require paperwork proving a negative COVID test within 72 hours prior to boarding.
- Cruise Ships – Cruise lines, such as Celebrity Cruises, are implementing requirements that all guests be fully vaccinated prior to sailing (where allowed by law). Cruise lines are implementing this check via their own website to check vaccination records.
While the talk of vaccination passports is gaining steam, there is still a significant number of places that have not implemented vaccination passports or are opposed to them. For example, the United States federal government has stated that it will not require any type of vaccine passport (although states can require them). Also, most of the rest of the world is still in the process of vaccinating its citizens. As the vaccination percentages in the rest of the world increase and more places reopen to travel, we will likely start to see more vaccination passports arrive.
How do Vaccine Passports Impact Travel?
Especially in the United States, checking vaccination and COVID-19 testing status is a manual process. The burden of enforcement on entry requirements has been deligated to airlines in most cases (although cruises will have to now check entry requirements as they reopen). Because of this delegation, the check-in time for flights where these checks are required has risen dramatically. However, as these checks become more normal, improvements to the process are being made.
I traveled internationally very soon after United States imposed their test requirement for anyone returning from a foreign country (See: Traveling During the COVID-19 Pandemic). Because the regulations had only been in place for three to four weeks at the time of travel, processes were still being worked out. There were paper forms at the airport that needed to be completed and check-in agents manually reviewed the COVID-19 test paperwork. All of this created a check-in process much longer than normal. At that point, there were not many people flying so it was acceptable. As travel volume increases, those processes will not be acceptable. Airlines and governments are adapting to more automated processes.
Health forms have mostly moved to online or app-based versions instead of paper. Pre-verification with online and app-based passports is streamlining the travel process. All pre-clearance information is now linked to your travel tickets/itineraries. This means paperwork is not required to be presented and verified at the airport. In the US, airlines continue to improve this infrastructure. American Airlines has rolled out the VeriFLY app and United has rolled out its own Travel-Ready Center. While some airlines still verify information manually, most major airlines are moving this to digital verification to reduce the impact to travel.
Future of Vaccination Passports
While predicting the future is always tricky business, there are a few assumptions and predictions that we can make on vaccination passports.
First, the number of vaccination passports will increase as more of the world increases their vaccination rates and countries begin to reopen. This one seems pretty obvious. With most countries still closed to travel and with vaccination rates being low, vaccination passports aren’t needed. As both of these elements change, more vaccine passports will emerge.
Second, international vaccine passports will remain a thing through the end of 2021. In the next six months, we are unlikely to have vaccinated enough people worldwide to remove vaccination verification or testing requirements internationally. Until the infection rates are low enough worldwide or infections become regionalized, broad vaccine passports programs will remain.
Third, localized vaccination passports (for example state-based or entertainment business-based requirements) will disappear faster as localized caseloads drop. As an example, I fully expect passports such as the Excellcios Pass in New York to disappear before the end of 2021. This pass will disappear due to the federal government not embracing the requirements, the opposition to the passport by many states, and the impact on business that the passes have. My best guess on removal timing is during the Fall of 2021 assuming that caseloads remain low. Israel is already an example of this. As of writing, over 80% of the vaccine-eligible population had been fully vaccinated. This lead to a repeal of the previous vaccine passport, Green Pass, requirements in June 2021.
Wrap Up
This post started out of personal curiosity to see what vaccination passports were emerging and where they were required. Let me know if you have any questions on vaccine passports or insights that it would be good to share with the community.
