Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronald E. Georges said the Department of Information Technology had been hard at work on a web-based application, and it will soon be ready for use once it is launched in the coming week.

“We are testing the product, and it is basically ready for launch. We already had some information placed in the database already, so we will work with it,” he remarked during the live broadcast, dubbed ‘A talk with the health experts’ on September 27, 2021.

“So essentially persons can then go to this website which is on the Government’s server, and they can type in this information, they can upload their copies of their vaccine cards, front and back, upload their identification and some other verification information. That goes into a database, and we will be able to verify it against whether they have been vaccinated or not.”

Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronald E. Georges, centre, along with National Epidemiologist Harmonie Brewley-Massiah, right, was a guest on ‘A talk with the health experts’ on September 27, 2021.

'Important tool' for international travel

He said once it has been given the green light, a vaccine verification letter with a QR Code will be sent to the applicant.

“So anybody who gets that letter now and they scan the QR Code, or if they have uploaded the PDF, they can just click on the link, and it goes straight back to the Government’s website and verify if that person is vaccinated. So that will satisfy the requirements for a number of countries for travel,” he stated.

Dr Georges also said there has been a lot of discussion on social media about Apple Wallets and Samsung Wallets. He said it is a work in progress that will be part of the digital offerings in the future.

He explained that it was an important tool because “As you know verification of vaccines is required for a number of things not so much locally but internationally.”

Additionally, the document will include information such as the date of inoculation and the date one was tested.