COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – The government of Denmark 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 so they can travel and the restrictions on public life can help relieve.
Finance Minister Morten Budskov told a press conference that “in three or four months a digital corona passport will be ready for use in business travel, for example.”
“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 whole world as a market, ”he added.
As a first step, citizens in Denmark would be able to see official confirmation on a Danish health website before the end of February if they have been vaccinated.
“It will be the extra passport you can have on your cell phone that says you have been vaccinated,” said Boedskov. “We can be one of the first in the world to have it and show it to the rest of the world.”
The coronavirus has almost completely halted international travel as countries try to contain the spread of the virus. For example, major European airlines fly a tenth of their normal traffic.
The presentation of the Danish government was held together with representatives of the main business organizations, the Confederation of Danish Industries, which represents Denmark’s main companies, and the Danish Chamber of Commerce.
Denmark, like the neighboring Nordic and Baltic countries, has moved to a fully digital system in recent years to reduce bureaucracy with online platforms supporting electronic authentication and digital signatures to enable paperless communication in both the private and public sectors.
The European Commission, meanwhile, has weighed up proposals to issue vaccination certificates to get travelers to their holiday destinations faster and prevent another disastrous summer for the European tourism industry. But the EU’s executive arm said such certificates would, for now, be used only for medical purposes, such as tracking the potential adverse effects of vaccines.
Some comparable digital passports are being developed to help travelers safely demonstrate compliance with COVID-19 testing requirements. One of these, called CommonPass, says it can track vaccinations too.
On Tuesday, Estonia said it will allow passengers to enter the country with proof of vaccination against COVID-19 to avoid quarantine requirements.
The Baltic country said the certificate must meet certain criteria, including information on when the vaccine was made, which vaccine was used, the vaccine provider and the batch number of the vaccine. The certificate must be in Estonian, Russian or English.
The Danish government said it will later decide whether the digital passport should be used for purposes other than travel to help reopen public life.