Digital documentation of COVID-19 certificates: vaccination status: technical specifications and implementation guidance

Overview

This is a guidance document for countries and implementing partners on the technical requirements for developing digital information systems for issuing standards-based interoperable digital certificates for COVID-19 vaccination status, and considerations for implementation of such systems, for the purposes of continuity of care, and proof of vaccination. 

Executive summary

In the context of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the concept of Digital Documentation of COVID-19 Certificates (DDCC) is proposed as a mechanism by which a person’s COVID-19-related health data can be digitally documented via an electronic certificate.

A digital vaccination certificate that documents a person’s current vaccination status to protect against COVID-19 can then be used for continuity of care or as proof of vaccination for purposes other than health care. The resulting artefact of this approach is referred to as the Digital Documentation of COVID-19 Certificates: Vaccination Status (DDCC:VS).

The current document is written for the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic; thus, the approach is architected to respond to the evolving science and to the immediate needs of countries in this rapidly changing context; for this reason, the document is issued as interim guidance. The approach could eventually be extended to capture vaccination status to protect against other diseases.

The document is part of a series of guidance documents (see Fig. 1) on digital documentation of COVID-19-related data of interest: vaccination status (this document), laboratory test results, and history of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has developed this guidance and accompanying technical specifications, in collaboration with a multidisciplinary group of partners and experts, in order to support WHO Member States in adopting interoperable standards for recording vaccination status. The audience of this document is therefore Member States and their implementing partners that want to put in place digitally signed vaccination records.