WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and European Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides have signed a new partnership agreement to use the digital COVID-19 card as the basis for a global health certification system.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and European Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides described Monday’s new partnership agreement as “historic”.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the value of digital health solutions in facilitating access to health services,” Tedros said at the signing ceremony in Geneva.
He explained that the Covid certificate issued by the European Union will now be transformed into a “global public good”, as the first step to establishing a global digital health certificate network.
He added that the network would expand to include things like digital international routine vaccination cards.
“The aim of this certification is to help protect people from health threats, including potential future pandemics, and to facilitate global mobility,” the WHO and the European Union said in a statement.
Tedros stressed that this “will be an important part of our efforts to strengthen health systems and support our member states to better prepare for the next epidemic or pandemic … The network can also play a critical role in humanitarian situations across borders by ensuring that people have access to their health records and credentials.” as they move across borders due to conflict, the climate crisis and other emergencies.”
Kyriakides also noted at the signing ceremony that the certificate “provided a solution for our citizens and at the same time protected public health systems amid the uncertainty of the pandemic.”
Tedros stressed that the new certification system “will be based on the principles of fairness, innovation, transparency, data protection and privacy.”
AFP