Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon Lopez has advised fully vaccinated Filipinos to keep their vaccination cards as the government prepares a digital identification system to verify the Covid-19 vaccination status of an individual.
Lopez said the Department of Information and Communications Technology is expected to launch the digital vaccine ID within a month. “I think in a few weeks, around one month, we will complete this digital card, and hopefully a QR code system where the vaccine ID will be centralized and consolidated and in digital form,” he told a Laging Handa public briefing Friday.
He said the vaccine card will serve as proof for age group members that they already completed their Covid-19 vaccine so they will be allowed to enter establishments as the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) now allows fully vaccinated people aged 65 years old and above to go outside their residences.
The DTI chief said the IATF already has already agreed in principle to allow non-authorized persons outside residences (APORs) to go outside their houses two weeks after they completed the Covid-19 vaccine.
“We believe in the vaccine, but we should also believe in the vaccinated,” he said, adding he is optimistic business establishments will shortly be allowed to reopen and the country’s economy recover more rapidly.
“Hopefully, we can get back to our growth momentum prior to the pandemic,” he said.