THE Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said it may begin issuing Covid-19 vaccine certificates for international travel by August 2021.

In a televised briefing, DICT Undersecretary Manny Caintic said local government units were given until July 31, 2021 to complete the encoding of their vaccine recipients in the Vaccine Information Management System which was created in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) and International Air Transport Association.

“Kung mai-submit na ng mga LGU ang kanilang mga listahan come July 31 ay pwede na tayo mag-issue ng vaccine certificates at pwede ‘yan gamitin for international travel,” he said on Saturday, July 10, 2021

Caintic said the vaccination certificate to be issued by the DICT cannot be falsified because each will contain a quick response (QR) code.

Vaccination cards being issued by local government units will still be accepted, but only for domestic travel.

On Friday, Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año said the government is coming up with measures to prevent the proliferation of fake vaccination cards for domestic travel.

The Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases has passed a resolution allowing fully vaccinated travelers to present a vaccination card in lieu of a swab test for Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

The task force, which is co-led by the Department of Health, has also clarified that a previous resolution is still in effect which allows LGUs to require testing before entry. The test is also limited to reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). (SunStar Philippines)