By Dominic Taylor-
China has launched a health certificate programme for Chinese citizens travelling internationally, one of the first countries in the world to issue a “virus passport”.
The digital certificate, which shows a user’s vaccination status and virus test results, is available for Chinese citizens via a programme on Chinese social media platform WeChat, which was launched on Monday.
The certificate is being rolled out “to help promote world economic recovery and facilitate cross-border travel”, a foreign ministry spokesman said
The certificate, also available in paper form, is currently only for use by Chinese citizens, and is not yet mandatory. There is concern it might be heading in that direction.
China is still working with other countries to get the certificate recognised when Chinese travellers go overseas.
The vaccine passport already in place by the Chinese government is the first of its kind so far.
The United States and the United Kingdom are among countries also considering a vaccine passport, but the idea has met fierce opposition in many quarters.
In the UK, Boris Johnson has delegated the duty of evaluating the ethical/legal advantages and disadvantages of instituting a vaccine passport in the UK to cabinet minister Michael Gove. The aim is to assure employers and employees that they are working in a fully covid safe environment.
The European Union is also working on a vaccine “green pass” that would allow citizens to travel between member countries and abroad.
China’s programme includes an encrypted QR code that allows authorities to obtain a traveller’s health information, state media agency Xinhua reported on Monday.
The apps track a user’s location and produce a “green” code – synonymous with good health – if a user has not been in close contact with a confirmed case or has not travelled to a virus hotspot.
The coronavirus which sparked the pandemic which has gripped the world is believed to have begun in a market in Wuhan.
In January, the U.S. intelligence community presented evidence that several researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology laboratory were sick with Covid-like symptoms in autumn 2019—implying the Chinese government had hidden crucial information about the outbreak for months—and that the WIV lab, despite “presenting itself as a civilian institution,” was conducting secret research projects with the Chinese military.
The State Department alleged a Chinese government cover-up and asserted that “Beijing continues today to withhold vital information that scientists need to protect the world from this deadly virus, and the next one”.
Virus or vaccine passport are believed to be in the works by many airlines for future international travel. However, they also raise issues of privacy invasion and adds to the draconian levels of restrictions imposed on citizens.