Google will bring digital vaccine cards to Android phones

A Chilean athlete shows a vaccination record card reading ‘I get vaccinated’ in Santiago, Chile. People will soon be able to store their vaccination or Covid-19 status on their phone and access it at any time, as long as their health care organisation or government has opted into Google’s system, the tech giant announced. — Reuters

Alphabet Inc’s Google will begin letting people easily store their vaccine records on Android devices, adding to a push from some companies and states to digitise evidence of the shot.

People will be able to store their vaccination or Covid-19 status on their phone and access it at any time, as long as their health care organisation or government has used Google’s system to make their results available to them digitally using the new tools, Google announced in a blog post on Wednesday. The feature is starting in the US but coming to more countries, though Google did not specify which ones. The company said it does not keep a copy of the information.

California is among states that have kicked off a program to make digital cards accessible and commonplace through its own system. Technology firms have pushed the benefits of digital vaccine passports, particularly as some companies and venues are requiring proof. Fraudulent cards are already a problem.

At the onset of the pandemic, Google and Apple Inc started efforts for disease contact tracing using mobile phones. But the efforts failed to get considerable traction with governments and consumers. So far, Healthvana Inc, a medical data company, is using Google’s system in Los Angeles, the company said. – Bloomberg