A man uses his smartphone to search for his vaccination information
For instance, resident Nguyen Van Nam in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 12 has not yet been issued a vaccine passport though he has got three doses of the Covid-19 vaccine from the end of December 2021.
Prior, when he heard about the issuance of vaccine passports to those who are fully vaccinated, Mr. Nam thought he would have a vaccine passport soon because he had been vaccinated for a long time and his vaccination information was correctly declared fully displayed on the PC application- Covid.
However, he said that as of June 4, the vaccine passport entry on the PC-Covid application has not been updated, while all his friends in other provinces and cities have vaccine passports even though they have been vaccinated later than him. He moaned that he was very worried because he ought to go to Thailand on a business trip two weeks later; therefore, he needs to have a vaccine passport.
Explaining for a delay in the issuance of vaccine passports, the Ministry of Health said that there has been a hiccup along the way of reviewing information, updating, connecting, and supplementing data of vaccinated people for the issuance of vaccine passports.
Regarding the delay in data processing and signing of vaccine passports, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Health’s Medical Data Center Nguyen Ba Hung pointed out that the implementation of documents of the Ministry of Health to lower-level agencies in some provinces and cities is the culprit for the postpone. Secondly, localities have not really directed and drastically implemented the work of guidance, inspection and supervision.
Next, police forces also take part in the completion of data processing. However, the reality is that the Project 06 working group for the Government's project on ‘Developing the application of population data, identification and electronic authentication for national digital transformation from 2022 to 2025 with the vision to 2030’ has not given direction to mobilize other forces to support the health sector; consequently, the data processing can’t be finished as scheduled.
Some medical stations have inoculated about 15,000 people with the Covid-19 vaccine but have updated incorrect information while only one medical staff is responsible for verifying and updating the data, Mr. Nguyen Ba Hung has said.
Furthermore, Mr. Nguyen Ba Hung said that many people have not provided accurate and complete information when injecting the Covid-19 vaccine, leading to insufficient information to conduct verification. Along with that, the digital signature system for vaccine passport confirmation is not stable, sometimes it has been overloaded when vaccination facilities simultaneously sign in large numbers.
According to the Ministry of Health’s request, medical facilities and localities ought to complete Covid-19 vaccination data no later than June 1 to serve as a basis for authenticating citizens' electronic vaccine passports. However, until now, more than 28 million people in the country have got vaccine passports.
Statistically, as of June 4, the country has vaccinated over 221.6 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine. More than 71.4 million people aged 18 years and older received one dose of the vaccine and over 68.7 million people got their second injection of the Covid vaccine. Therefore, according to the assessment of the Ministry of Health, the completion of vaccination data and the signing of the vaccine passport have not achieved the schedule which has greatly affected those who have been vaccinated with the Covid-19 vaccine.
People with a vaccine passport, also known as digital vaccination certificates, can travel and do business trips, especially in the context of many countries and regions around the world that have reopened tourism and business activities for international visitors. Moreover, so far, 27 European Union member countries and 54 countries and territories have recognized Vietnam's vaccine passport.
According to the Ministry of Health, people who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 and have their data updated on the system by the vaccination facility, authenticated with the correct information with the National Population Database, will be signed with a household identification number without any further procedures, even they have lost their paper vaccination certificate.
People can check on the application of the Electronic Health Book and PC-Covid, or on the Ministry of Health’s look-up page which is under construction and will be soon launched shortly. At the same time, the Ministry of Health has written to request the Ministry of Public Security to add the function of displaying vaccine passports on the VNeID application.
Mr. Nguyen Ba Hung also affirmed that people who receive the Covid-19 vaccine at different medical facilities only need the last injection facility to sign for confirmation. In case the vaccination facility filled the wrong information resulting in a delay in the issuance of a vaccine passport, people should contact the vaccination facility directly or report it on the Covid-19 vaccination portal at https://tiemchungcovid19.gov.vn for additional and updated information.
In addition, people can call the Ministry of Health's switchboard at 19009095 to reflect on or get advice on issues related to vaccine passports.
