By now it's clear, vaccine passports are going to be a mandatory part of moving around in our communities and in our world for the foreseeable future. COVID health status is now a new personal attribute that can be used to safely get back to traveling, work, school and life.
With places like sports arenas, concert venues, as well as airports and international destinations requiring proof of vaccination against Covid-19, the availability of apps and resources dedicated to housing vaccine card and testing information is on the rise.
A "vaccine passport" is a digital app capable of pulling up and storing the user's health records and generating a QR code to show authorities when requested.
Our advice (as of August 2021) is to download 2 Health Pass Apps and 2 travel or destination specific apps. This will allow you to get set up and get used to using these systems by playing around with a variety of apps while things streamline and normalize in the coming months. The four apps below seem to be emerging as leaders among many.
Bottom line, for now expect to have several vaccination passport apps on your phone.
Each of these apps follow the same basic set up, including taking a clear photo of your face and scanning a drivers license or passport first to authenticate your identity, and then uploading and maintaining vaccination records and negative test results.
CLEAR Health Pass
Although CLEAR is known mainly as the service that allows members to jump the security line at major airports in cities like Los Angeles or New York City, its app also now has a convenient (and completely free) new feature called Health Pass.
In the app, users can add their digital vaccination cards when they’re required to show proof. This component of the app is free of charge.
For $179 annually, you can get a subscription to CLEAR and all the benefits that come along with that, including bypassing long airport lines (similar to TSA Precheck and Global Entry).
With Health Pass, store a digital version of your vaccine card for easy access when traveling, attending sporting events, or visiting any businesses that require proof of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Airside Health Passport
As of now, the landscape of digital vaccine passports in the U.S. is a very messy patchwork. The Airside Health Passport app seems to be a front runner in streamlining this.
Airside "source-verifies" inputs and assigns them to the correct individual so businesses can be confident of the integrity of the information. This app allows you to manage all of your verified identity credentials in one place —passport, driver’s license, Covid vaccination record, testing results and more.
NAVICA
The NAVICA app was designed by Abbott designed to pair with the BinaxNOW rapid antigen test for COVID-19. The app allows you to store, access and display a BinaxNOW test result.
Specifically, this is an app where you can store negative covid test results, including home tests and tests taken to re-enter the United States when traveling abroad.
VeriFLY
Like the apps above, VeriFLY is an identity verification app that allows users to upload and verify health information like COVID test results.
However, American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia are specifically using VeriFLY for travelers to prove their travel-safe health status on certain limited flights.
VeriFLY does not currently support vaccination records, but it has been a crucial app adopted by many airlines recently. The app was created for passengers to pull up their negative COVID test results in order to ensure admission on their respective flight.
Coming Soon: IATA Travel Pass App
We're also keenly watching the development of an app by the International Air Travel Association (IATA) called Travel Pass. Because this is an organization that serves the entire airline industry, this launch could be the common app we'll all be using a few months from now.
IATA plans to meet the digital health verification standards soon to be put forth by the World Health Organization, which should help airports accommodate travelers from different countries with different health paperwork.
Labs will be able to securely send test results or vaccination records to customers via the app while also verifying that those results meet entry requirements with a QR code.
Currently the app is in Beta but plans to "open to the public in the coming weeks."