Update on Recognition and Verification of Health Passports

Mr Ang Wei Neng asked the Minister for Transport (a) whether he can provide an update on the recognition of health passports issued by the International Air Transport Association and individual countries; and (b) how can the Singapore Government verify the authenticity of the Immunity Health Passport issued by the respective countries with regard to personal immunisation records and COVID-19 test results.

Mr Speaker, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has been working with various countries and regions, including Singapore, to include vaccination certificates in the IATA Travel Pass (ITP) application.

Since 1 May 2021, passengers travelling to Singapore have been able to use the ITP to share their pre-departure Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test results when checking-in with their airlines, as well as on-arrival at the immigration checkpoints at Changi Airport.

Singapore is also in bilateral discussions with several countries on establishing mechanisms for the mutual recognition of vaccination certificates, including with Australia, Malaysia and Republic of Korea. We have set up inter-agency bilateral working groups with these countries and are exchanging information on how we may mutually verify the authenticity of each other’s certificates. This includes the exchange of public keys for the verification of digital certificates and the exchange of specimen copies for the verification of physical certificates.

These discussions will likely take some time, as countries and regions are at different stages of progress in vaccinating their respective populations. Nonetheless, these multilateral and regional discussions are useful in laying the groundwork for us to re-open travel for vaccinated individuals between Singapore and these countries when we are ready to do so.

Thank you, Speaker. I thank the Senior Minister of State for the comprehensive reply. We understand that we are now negotiating travel corridors, rather than travel bubbles. And one of the important factors hinges on the vaccine passport. We are glad that we have started discussions. But having said that, some countries in Asia, especially one country in North Asia, had experienced a vaccination scam, even a Member of Parliament was also a victim of this vaccination scam. Different countries have different ways of identifying residents who have gone for the vaccination and what type of vaccination.

So, my supplementary question to the Senior Minister of State is that, first, what are the type of vaccinations that we will recognise in the vaccination passport? Two, how are we going to verify that this vaccination that each of the residents in the different country get are in the appropriate manner, that they are vaccinated properly?

Sir, I thank Mr Ang for his questions. I think we should view the ITP and also other forms of such certificates, as a two-step process. The first step is how do we establish ways to verify the authenticity of these certificates? So, in other words, I need to make sure that when you say that you are tested and it is PCR negative, or when you say that you are vaccinated, I can trust that this information is accurate and there is a way to do this. So, I think that is the first step: establishing the checks to verify how authentic, how accurate is this information.

The second step is, once you have this information, then what do you do with it. That is a separate discussion. Just because the individual comes from a particular country and has been tested negative or has been vaccinated, does not mean that we automatically do away with some of the restrictions. Because it really depends on, first of all, what is the rate of infection in that source country, how confident are we of the risk level of this individual, when he or she travels to Singapore. And that would then determine what kind of safeguards we put in place.

So, I think to answer Mr Ang's questions, this is an ongoing discussion with the countries that I mentioned earlier. But we should view this, really, as a two-stage process.