Travelore Update: Brazil Justice Rules Vaccine Passport Mandatory For Visitors

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A Brazilian Supreme Court justice ruled Saturday that all travelers arriving in Brazil must present a vaccine passport documenting they have been vaccinated against the coronavirus.

The decision from Luís Roberto Barroso challenges a more lenient rule announced by the government of President Jair Bolsonaro, who has opposed mandatory immunization against the virus that can cause COVID-19.

Barroso’s ruling must be reviewed by all 11 judges of the Supreme Court next week.

The federal government announced Tuesday that travelers arriving in Brazil did not have to produce a vaccine passport though they would have to undergo a five-day quarantine.

In ruling on a petition filed by the Network Sustainability party, Barroso said monitoring the quarantines of thousands of travelers would be too difficult and would put Brazilians at risk.

“The threat of promoting anti-vaccine tourism, due to the imprecision of the regulations that require the voucher, represents an imminent risk,” Barroso said in the ruling.

Brazil’s president has argued that those backing the use of vaccine passports want to restrict freedoms of the population.

UK Ditches Plans For Vaccine Passports At Crowded Venues

LONDON (AP) — Authorities in Britain have decided not to require vaccine passports for entry into nightclubs and other crowded events in England, Britain’s health secretary said Sunday, reversing course amid opposition from some of the Conservative government’s supporters in Parliament.

Health Minister Sajid Javid said the government has shelved the idea of vaccine passports for now but could reconsider the decision if COVID-19 cases rise exponentially once again.

“We’ve looked at it properly and whilst we should keep it in reserve as a potential option, I’m pleased to say that we will not be going ahead with plans for vaccine passports,” Javid told the BBC.

The U-turn came just days after both the government’s vaccines minister and the culture secretary suggested that vaccine passports would still be necessary, despite growing opposition from lawmakers.

In particular, members of the governing Conservative Party have objected to such passports as an unacceptable burden on businesses and an infringement on residents’ human rights.

The idea of requiring people to show proof of vaccination or a recent negative test for COVID-19 has been uncomfortable for many in Britain, where people generally aren’t required to carry identification documents.

Other European nations are using similar documents showing peoples’ vaccination status as a way to re-open society — although the rules vary widely. Each of Germany’s 16 states has slightly different rules on what is required, but in general, people are required to show a negative test, vaccine or recovery certificate before being allowed to participate in indoor dining, drinking or dancing.

Passes are required in France when frequenting bars, cafes, restaurants, museums and other places where the public gathers and for long-distance travel on buses, trains and planes. In Italy, where discos have not re-opened since the start of the pandemic, so-called Green Passes are required to dine indoors, attend a concert or for domestic travel by trains, buses, planes or ferries, although local transport is exempt.

Hawaii Creates Optional Digital Vaccination Record Program

The state of Hawaii this week plans to launch a program that will allow people to use their smartphones to prove they have been vaccinated against COVID-19.

The Hawaii Smart Health Card comes shortly before Honolulu and Maui begin instituting vaccine requirements for patrons of restaurants and other businesses.

State officials say that starting Friday, people who have been vaccinated in Hawaii will be able to upload a photo of their vaccination card to the Safe Travels Hawaii website to create a digital vaccination record. The website will crosscheck this information with data stored in the state’s vaccination database.

Gov. David Ige said this should help prevent the use of fake vaccination cards. The verification process should only take a few seconds.

Customers may show restaurants, museums and other establishments their verified Hawaii Smart Health Card in lieu of their paper vaccination card to gain admittance. Businesses will have the option to use a validator app to scan a QR code on the digital vaccination records to verify their legitimacy.

“Participation in the Hawaii Smart Health Card is voluntary. It is strictly a convenience for those residents who have been vaccinated here in the state of Hawaii,” Ige said at a news conference.

The governor said some states including California and New York have started using similar digital vaccination records.

However, people who have been vaccinated through the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or through the federal pharmacy program won’t be able to have their cards verified through the website.

Starting Monday, Honolulu will require patrons of restaurants, bars, museums, theaters and other establishments to show proof of vaccination or a negative test for COVID-19 taken within the previous 48 hours.

Maui will start a similar program on Wednesday, though patrons won’t have the option to show a negative test.

San Francisco’s New Rule: Proof Of Vaccine Or No Dining In

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Greg Ryken showed up to his favorite lunch spot in San Francisco on Friday with an appetite and his vaccination record in hand.

A manager at Sam’s Grill and Seafood restaurant verified he was fully vaccinated against COVID-19, put him on a list of customers who have met the city’s new requirement for future reference, and walked him to his table.

“Easy,” Ryken said as San Francisco became the first major city in the U.S. to enforce the strictest vaccine mandate for entering restaurants, bars, gyms and large concerts.

Businesses posted signs and added extra staff to begin verifying people’s vaccination and identity cards before allowing them in. Many gyms had already been checking their members’ vaccination status before the health order went into effect.

“We tested systems in place to see how we would do it, we were talking to our customers, getting our staff prepared, and we are so thrilled to have the full-throated support of the leadership of our city so we can confidently walk into this new landscape together,” said Tracey Sylvester, owner of a Pilates studio in the Mission neighborhood.

Pete Sittnick, a managing partner of Waterbar and EPIC Steak restaurants on the city’s waterfront, said he was worried about slow check-ins, resistance from guests against the requirement or people showing up without proper documentation. So far, he said, the lunch crowd came with vaccination cards in their hands, and the line to get through the door was short.

“The good thing is, if somebody doesn’t have their verification of vaccination they can still eat outside. There is an option and we just need to be ready for different scenarios,” he said.

Mayor London Breed announced the requirement more than a week ago in an attempt to stem rising COVID-19 cases, saying she was worried the highly contagious delta variant could disrupt the city’s economic rebound. She also hopes it will encourage vaccine holdouts to join the 79% of the population that have gotten their shots.

“This is not a punishment,” Breed said Friday. “It’s really about a chance to try and get us moving in the right direction and keeping people safe.”

The mandate goes further than New York City, which requires people to be at least partially vaccinated for a variety of high-risk indoor activities, and New Orleans, which requires proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test for indoor dining or drinking. All three cities make exceptions for people who don’t qualify for the vaccine, including children under 12.

It follows a number of tough safety measures San Francisco imposed since the beginning of the pandemic. The city and its neighboring counties in the Bay Area were the first in the U.S. to issue a stay-at-home order, and was the first big city in the nation to require all city employees to be vaccinated, without the option of testing regularly.

This week, the city sent letters recommending a 10-day suspension without pay for 20 employees in police, fire and sheriff’s departments who refused to report their vaccination status by the Aug. 12 deadline, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has also tighten the rules after announcing the reopening of California’s economy in June. He has required health care workers to get vaccinated to keep their jobs and all teachers and state workers to either get vaccinated or submit to weekly testing.

Local business groups have supported the new vaccine mandate, saying it will protect their employees’ and customers’ health and keep them from having to limit capacity indoors. Some businesses that had taken it upon themselves to check for proof of vaccination at the door said a citywide policy helps set clear expectations for all customers.

Jody McCord said the mandate forced her to cancel plans to meet relatives visiting from Wisconsin at her favorite dine-in spots because not everyone in her party is fully vaccinated. They had to take their reunion across San Francisco Bay to a restaurant in Sausalito.

It puts people between a rock and a hard place,” McCord said.

Online ordering and reservation systems such as OpenTable are helping businesses by warning customers of the mandate ahead of time. The city’s hospitality industry has launched a campaign called “Relax, We’re Vaxxed” to get the word out to travelers.

City officials said a paper card issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a photo of the CDC card, or a digital vaccine credential will suffice. Proof of vaccination issued by foreign governments is also acceptable.

Pearce Cleaveland, co-owner of the Temple nightclub, said his security guards have been trained to check all forms of vaccination proof and they have caught some people with fake vaccination cards.

“We’ve had people who get upset at the door when they’re turned away, but in general they’re understanding,” he said.

Workers have until Oct. 13 to prove they are fully vaccinated and Cleaveland said he expects to meet compliance by then.

After a sharp increase in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in the Bay Area over the summer, the numbers appear to be leveling off but remain high, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an expert on infectious diseases at the University of California, San Francisco.

He said reinstated restrictions have helped slow the spread.

“There is no magic bullet, just a combination of a hard stick and soft stick,” he said. “The proof of vaccination mandate is a soft stick because you can still eat outdoors, but if you want to hang out with people indoors you better get vaccinated.”

How Vaccine Passports For Global Travel Will Work

LONDON (AP) — Boarding pass, suitcase, passport and ... digital vaccination certificate?

Keen to avoid losing another summer of holiday revenue to the coronavirus pandemic, the European Union, some Asian governments and the airline industry are scrambling to develop so-called COVID-19 vaccine passports to help kickstart international travel.

They’re working on systems that would allow travelers to use mobile phone apps to prove they’ve been vaccinated, which could help them avoid onerous quarantine requirements at their destinations.

But the multiple efforts underscore the lack of one central international system to electronically verify vaccination status. The projects also face technical challenges in working together, while questions about privacy and vaccine inequality linger.

Vaccination passports would add another digital layer to the multitude of existing coronavirus health and contact tracing apps many countries and U.S. states have rolled out. Their use domestically to reopen local economies has been hotly debated, with many opposed to requiring them for pubs, concerts and sporting events. However, there’s more momentum to use them for international travel, especially as countries like Iceland open their borders to vaccinated visitors and others like Saudi Arabia start allowing vaccinated citizens to travel abroad. The EU’s decision last week to open its borders to fully vaccinated travelers adds even more urgency.

Here’s a look at how vaccine passports work:

OFFICIAL EFFORTS

The first part of a vaccination passport is the user’s official or approved electronic immunization record.

The European Union, China and Japan are all working on their own digital vaccination certificates for cross-border travel. The U.K., meanwhile, updated its National Health Service app last week to let fully vaccinated users prove their status when traveling abroad, coinciding with an easing of travel rules.

Testing is under way for the EU’s digital certificate, which will also confirm COVID-19 test results or recovery from the virus and is set to go live by the end of June, allowing residents to reunite with friends and relatives living across 30 European countries. It’s still unclear where and how exactly travelers in the EU, which doesn’t have internal border checkpoints, will have their certificates checked. Officials in Brussels say that will be up to individual countries. The idea is that travelers will flash a QR code on their phones so it can be scanned at, say, an airport or train station, using an official verification app that checks with national databases, via an EU technical “gateway.”

The World Health Organization doesn’t recommend vaccination proof as a requirement for international travel, citing unequal distribution of vaccines, even as it consults on interim guidance for developing a “Smart Vaccination Certificate.”

TRAVEL APPS

Travelers also need a smartphone app to carry any eventual official vaccination certificates.

The EU’s project includes open source technology European countries can use to build their own official mobile wallets.

The International Air Transport Association, an airline industry group, has its smartphone IATA Travel Pass, which airlines including Qantas, Japan Airlines, Emirates, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have signed up to. A rival effort, the nonprofit CommonPass, has gained traction with carriers like Cathay Pacific, JetBlue, United and Lufthansa.

Travelers can already use the apps to verify that their COVID-19 test results are accepted at their destination. Travel Pass and CommonPass are so far only available to travelers on airlines that are using them. Both can also be integrated into airline travel apps so users can verify their vaccine status when they check in online. Both are also expected to work with the EU certificates. CommonPass says users will be able to import vaccine credentials by mid-June.

Amid a pandemic-dimmed travel outlook, CommonPass CEO Paul Meyer said vaccine passports will only become more widespread. “Our expectation is it will remain a requirement for international travel.”

WHAT TRAVELERS WANT

Business travelers like British public relations executive Richard Fogg welcome vaccine passports. Fogg’s firm scaled back plans to attend a major telecom trade show in Barcelona next month, given quarantine rules for people returning to the U.K.

“Those 10 days of quarantine will have negative business implications – there’s no way around it,” Fogg said, while acknowledging tradeoffs including concerns about data privacy.

Eymeric Segard, CEO of Geneva-based private jet broker Lunajets, noted travelers already hand over passports with personal data on arrival.

“Personally, you know, I would be happy to tell anybody, yes, I am vaccinated or no I’m not vaccinated,” he said, adding that vaccine passports would help avoid the “logistical nightmare” of multiple COVID-19 tests Europeans face when visiting other EU countries.

WHAT ABOUT FAKES?

Phony paper COVID-19 document s sold by fraudsters have been a problem during the pandemic but developers say digital versions have safeguards that make them hard to fake.

IATA says it doesn’t verify test results or vaccination status but acts as the conduit for registered labs to securely send those details to travelers whose identity the app can match to the person who took the test or vaccination. The app scans a traveler’s face using the phone camera and matches it to passport biometric details, and there are checks to prevent someone else using their identity.

SECURITY AND PRIVACY

Vaccination passports are a polarizing topic, with online discussion highlighting unfounded fears that they’ll be used to control people, restrict freedom and erode privacy. Developers stress that minimal personal data is kept on phones, and the only thing that gets transmitted are encryption keys allowing information to be exchanged securely.

“If done correctly, this doesn’t bring an additional level of privacy risk because you’re just putting in a credential status of yes or no,” said Kevin Trilli, chief product officer at ID verification company Onfido, which is working on vaccination cards technology.

There’s also the question of how well various vaccine credential systems will work together and whether countries will recognize each others’ certificates. The U.K. government has warned that not many countries currently accept proof of vaccination from travelers.

“You can’t have an interoperable system on day zero,” but over time the kinks will be worked out, which helps lay the groundwork for the next pandemic, Trilli said.

What about people who don’t have smartphones? Or families that don’t have a device for each member? IATA and EU officials say they’re are working on solutions, including paper-based options.

American Airlines Customers Can Now Choose Vaccine Verification Option in VeriFLY

VeriFLY expands app’s capabilities to include COVID-19 vaccination verification, starting with the Bahamas, El Salvador and Guatemala

Customers using VeriFLY can use expedited check-in lanes at most U.S. hub airports

As more countries and destinations move to require proof of a coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination for travelers, American Airlines is working with mobile health partner Daon and its app VeriFLY to help customers verify they are vaccinated and ready to fly before they even step foot in an airport. Customers using the VeriFLY app now have the option to securely upload their vaccine documentation for travel to the Bahamas, El Salvador and Guatemala.

“VeriFLY gives customers peace of mind that they can meet their destination’s travel requirements and save significant time at the airport,” said Julie Rath, Vice President of Customer Experience at American. “As countries reopen to those who have been vaccinated, we are ready with VeriFLY to help our customers travel with confidence.”

For travel to the Bahamas, El Salvador and Guatemala, customers can upload a photo of both sides of their COVID-19 vaccine record into the app. The VeriFLY team will review that all documentation meets the destination requirements.

The VeriFLY app simplifies travel by allowing customers to enter their origin and destination and guiding them through the necessary travel requirements. Customers can upload documentation of their fulfilled requirements directly to the app, which then validates that the documents match a country’s requirements, and displays a simple pass or fail message. This simple message streamlines the check-in and document verification process at the airport before departure. The app also provides travelers with reminders when their travel window is coming to a close or once their pass credential has expired.

As countries continue to set standards for COVID-19 vaccination requirements, VeriFLY will integrate those standards into its verification processes to simplify the customer’s journey and provide peace of mind that they met their destination’s requirements. Customers can download the app for free from the iOS App Store or Google Play Store. VeriFLY is the airline industry’s most widely adopted mobile health passport, helping customers flying on American and its partners — Aer Lingus, Alaska Airlines British Airways, Iberia, Japan Air Lines, and Qantas — travel to more than 60 countries and 280 destinations.

American Airlines does not require vaccination for travel. In some cases, as with required visas or other immunizations, a customer may be required by a local destination to have proof of a COVID-19 immunization. American will confirm the customer has documents required by their destination’s local government before they board the plane.