COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – The Danish government said on Wednesday that it is joining forces with companies to develop a digital passport that shows whether people have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, allowing them to travel and helping to ease restrictions on public life.
Finance Minister Morten Boedskov said at a news conference that “in three, four months, a Corona digital passport will be ready for use, for example, on business trips”.
“It is absolutely crucial for us to be able to restart Danish society so that companies can get back on track. Many Danish companies are global companies with the entire world as a market, ”he added.
As a first step, before the end of February, Danish citizens will be able to see on a Danish health website the official confirmation that they have been vaccinated.
“It will be the extra passport you can have on your cell phone that will document that you have been vaccinated,” said Boedskov. “We can be among the first in the world to have it and show it to the rest of the world.”
The coronavirus was almost completely stopped on international travel, as countries try to stop the spread of the virus. The main European airlines, for example, are flying a tenth of their normal traffic.
The presentation of the Danish government was made in conjunction with representatives of the main business organizations, the Confederation of Danish Industries, which represents the main companies in Denmark, and the Danish Chamber of Commerce.
Denmark, like the neighboring Nordic and Baltic countries, has in recent years adopted a fully digital system to cut red tape with online platforms that support electronic authentication and digital signatures to enable paperless communications in the public and private sectors.
The European Commission, for its part, is evaluating proposals to issue vaccination certificates to help get travelers to their holiday destinations more quickly and avoid another disastrous summer for the European tourism sector. But the EU’s executive arm said that, for now, these certificates would be used only for medical purposes, for example, to monitor the possible adverse effects of vaccines.
Some similar digital passports are being developed to help travelers safely show that they have met the COVID-19 test requirements. One, called CommonPass, says it can also track vaccinations.
On Tuesday, Estonia said it would allow passengers arriving in the country with a COVID-19 vaccination voucher to avoid quarantine.
The Baltic country said the certificate must meet certain criteria, including information saying when the vaccine was made, which vaccine was used, the vaccine issuer and the vaccine batch number. The certificate must be in Estonian, Russian or English.
The Danish government said it would decide later whether the digital passport should be used for purposes other than travel, to help reopen public life.