Los Angeles residents will be able to prove they have the COVID-19 vaccination with the Wallet app.
According to Bloomberg, the California public health department has teamed with startup Healthvana on an app that will that will store vaccination records in Google or Apple wallets. It will remind residents to get a second shot, while providing them with a vaccination record “to prove to airlines, to prove to schools, to prove to whoever needs it,” Healthvana CEO Ramin Bastani said.
The idea is that the digital token, provided by the software company Healthvana, will remind patients to come in for their second dose of the vaccine — but it could ultimately be used to access event venues, or airports, should they bring in so-called health-passport systems.
“We’re really concerned. We really want people to come back for that second dose,” Claire Jarashow, the director of vaccine preventable disease control at Los Angeles County’s Department of Public Health, told Bloomberg.
“We just don’t have the capacity to be doing hundreds of medical record requests to find people’s first doses and when they need to get their second,” she said.
It’s not yet clear when the app/service will be available or exactly how it will work. Healthvana already offers a contact tracing app for LA County residents, along with patient portals to view test results and other COVID-19 related services. Other companies like IBM and non-profit organizations are also working on digital “vaccine passports” that will eventually allow folks to travel or enter stadiums, movie theaters and other venues.
Tracking Covid-19 vaccine recipients and authenticating immunization statuses are both poised to become increasingly important metrics in the US and globally as vaccines are rolled out. It’s unclear if this feature will ever make its way to Canada, but it definitely should.
