As COVID-19 vaccines continue to roll out, many people who have been stuck at home for the past year are eager to travel to see loved ones or just to get a change of scenery.
Countries across the globe have begun announcing “vaccine passports,” allowing their citizens to use proof of vaccination to travel once again.
China unveiled its digital vaccine passport last month to be accessed via an app that would allow people to verify their vaccination status by scanning a QR code.
Japan recently announced plans for a similar digital passport expected to debut in the coming weeks.
And the European Union says it backs a “Digital Green Certificate,” which would allow citizens who have proof that they’ve been vaccinated, received a negative coronavirus test result, or have recovered from COVID-19 to travel across all 27 member states.
The United States hasn’t announced a plan for vaccine passports, though several companies within the United States are developing digital vaccine certificates for smartphone apps.
And while there are still many unknowns around what vaccine passports may look like in practice, travel medicine experts also believe these passports may play an important role in international travel moving forward.
“I think it is clearly the direction travel is going,” Dr. Henry Wu, director of Emory TravelWell Center and associate professor of infectious diseases at Emory University School of Medicine, told Healthline.
“There’s long been testing requirements for entering countries, including the U.S., and I think you can’t ignore the building data that these vaccines are highly effective not just in preventing illness but also preliminary data that they also appear to reduce transmission. It’s another tool that can be used to make travel safer,” Wu said.
Based off recent studies evaluating the real-world effects of COVID-19 vaccination, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced last week that fully vaccinated people can now safely travel within the United States without needing to get tested or self-quarantine.
This is as long as they continue to take precautions while traveling, including wearing a mask and physical distancing.
International travel is also safe without testing or quarantine for fully vaccinated people, the CDC says, though people still may be subject to these measures depending on their destination.
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Source: healthline