G20 supports Indonesia to issue vaccine certificate verifying system

We call it a universal verifier for vaccine certificates. Thus, there will be one universal portal to verify countries joining this universal verification.

Group of Twenty (G20) member states have thrown their weight behind Indonesia’s effort to issue a vaccine certificate verifying system to facilitate global travelling, the Health Ministry stated.

"We call it a universal verifier for vaccine certificates. Thus, there will be one universal portal to verify countries joining this universal verification,” expert staff for health technology at the Health Ministry Setiyadi noted during a press conference held on the sidelines of the Health Working Group (HWG) G20 themed, "Harmonizing Global Health Protocol Standards" in Yogyakarta on Monday night.

Setiyadi remarked that the portal will be able to identify whether travelers have been vaccinated against COVID-19.

All G20 member states except for China have conducted a trial for the universal portal. China is still in the technical process.

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“Actually, it can be implemented now because it has been successfully tested. Hopefully, it can be (operated) during the G20 Summit in October,” he noted.

Meanwhile, Global Health Advisor OECD, Nick Tomlinson, noted that countries should increase interoperability of different international systems.

“Vaccine certificates have been issued in different formats. Any agreement on ways to connect the certificates will be a good step, and later, we need to ensure a safe, reliable, and sustainable system,” he stated.

Tomlinson emphasized that countries should ensure the continuity of a series of policies they have taken, so that they will support transition from pandemic to the endemic stage.

Related news: Indonesia expects G20 to harmonize global travel health protocols

“The current health situation has clearly been improving. We still live in the transition from pandemic to endemic,” he stated.

Earlier, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin had drawn attention to the harmonization of global health protocol standard that can be started in G20 member states to make international travel easier.

"We can start it from G20. As such, other countries will find it easy to adopt the health protocol standard,” he affirmed.