It appears that the U.S. may be on the way to having a standardized Covid-19 credential—commonly referred to as a vaccine passport, although most versions also provide proof of testing or recovery as well—according to the Washington Post.
In an article published yesterday, the Post says that the Biden administration is working with a number of private companies on a standard way of handling such credentials. The push for a ‘passport’ has been growing not only in the travel industry, but also from sports arenas, theatres and restaurants that would like to assure safety for both customers and employees.
The Post says the White House has now taken a bigger role in efforts largely at the Department of Health and Human Services, and that the President’s coronavirus coordinator, Jeff Zients, is coordinating efforts with a goal of announcing something in the next few days.
Typically passports that are being tested in other countries and by airlines involve a smartphone app that is able to retrieve virus and vaccination status information from secure government databases and display it as a QR or other code that can be read and verified. One such app, developed by IBM, was rolled out last week by New York State, which calls it the Excelsior Pass.
