Bahrain, 19 Feb — Bahrain launched a new digital COVID-19 vaccine passport for its’ citizens who finish their vaccination through the country’s app “BeAware”.
As the first Arab country to do so, the app will provide a digital official certificate along with a green shield sign detailing the person’s name, date of birth, nationality, and the type of vaccination received.
Users of the app must receive two doses of COVID-19 vaccine, separated by 21 days and another two weeks to wait for antibodies to develop before they get the digital vaccine passport, an official statement said.
“Authorities will be able to verify its validity by scanning a QR code linked to the national vaccine register,” it added.
The small island of Bahrain has a total population of around 1.5 million, offered vaccines for citizens and residents free of charge. The vaccines include the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine, Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine, and the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.
Bahrain is the not the first country in the world to explore new ways of issuing passports and digital documents to recognise vaccinated people, as Denmark announced earlier this month that it’s planning to launch a digital COVID-19 vaccination passport by the end of February.
Sweden also is planning to launch a vaccine passport by summer, assuming there is an international standard in place for the COVID-19 vaccination passport by then, the government said two weeks ago.
Source: Arab News/The Independent/Agencies