California Launches Digital COVID-19 Vaccine Verification Tool

The state of California’s Departments of Public Health and Technology today unveiled a way for residents to keep digital copies of their COVID-19 vaccination records.

The Digital COVID-19 Vaccine Record portal relies on the state’s existing immunization registry and provides the same information as the paper cards that are issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The new portal, “provides Californians a way to view and save their own vaccine record,” the state’s Chief Information Officer, Amy Tong, explained on a press call. “Instead of having a card, if they want to have a digital version of the same CDC card, this is your opportunity to do so.”

To access their vaccine information online, Californians will complete an online form with their name, date of birth and cell phone or email they provided upon receiving the vaccine, then create a personal four-digit pin. The system will then spit out a QR code that’s linked directly to their COVID-19 vaccination record.

Users can take a screenshot of their digital record as displayed on the site, rather than carrying around and keeping track of a CDC card. Because, let’s face it, little slips of paper stuffed into your wallet or tossed into a drawer aren’t an ideal form of documentation these days.

“The odds are someone is going to misplace their paper CDC card and a digital COVID-19 vaccine record provides a convenient backup,” the state’s epidemiologist, Dr. Erica Pan, told reporters. Plus, paper records can be more easily falsified, as Lucy Dunn, the Orange County Business Council’s President and Chief Executive, pointed out to the Associated Press.

Amid ongoing concerns over potential discrimination based on individual vaccination statuses, California Governor Gavin Newsom has said that the tool does not—repeat NOT—constitute a “vaccine passport”, NBC News reported.

Thus far, New York is the only state to have created an official app that’s linked to its vaccination database, called the “Excelsior Pass”, which vaccinated residents can use when there’s a need to verify their immunization status, such as when attending very large events.

There’s no actual app to correspond with California’s new web portal, but it essentially serves the same purpose.

“This is very similar in concept to what New York launched with Excelsior Pass, which is an opportunity for a resident, in our case the state of California, to have a digital copy of their vaccination record,” California’s Chief Technology Innovation Officer, Rick Klau, said.

Although the Golden State has mostly reopened its communities and economy, some pandemic protections remain, including a stipulation that all entrants at mass indoor gatherings (e.g., concerts, sporting events) provide proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID-19 test.

Despite some Americans’ resistance to the notion of vaccine passports, proof of vaccination is already emerging as a travel requirement for U.S. visitors entering other countries.

“It’s voluntary, personal, protected and as easy as adding it to your smart phone’s digital wallet like an airline boarding pass,” Dunn said of California’s new COVID-19 vaccination records portal.

For more information, visit myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov.