For those of us in NSW and Victoria, proving we’ve been fully vaccinated could become a little easier, with the state governments working together to integrate their respective check-in systems with your personal vax status. VaxPass should be available in a week.
NSW Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello gave us a first look at VaxPass this weekend.
🔹First Look
This is the VaxPass.
1. It’s in testing phase now.
2. In the next few days we will undertake closed pilots in some regional areas.
3. At this stage we are still on track for statewide roll-out on 18 October… pic.twitter.com/WUNwKLHvFa
— Victor Dominello MP (@VictorDominello) October 8, 2021
Both governments kicked off a pilot on Monday after deciding last month they were going to work together to integrate immunisation status into their apps.
Victoria already has its vaccination proof integrated into its check-in app, Service Victoria, in highly vaccinated parts of regional Victoria. As of 10 am AEDT Monday, more than 50,000 people apparently had added their vax deets to the Service Victoria app.
In NSW, the pilot will first touch regional areas. Up to 500 customers, to be selected by the businesses involved, will participate in the pilot across Tamworth, Port Macquarie, Wagga Wagga and Lismore.
The NSW government plans to have it ready for everyone by October 18.
There are already three ways to download your vaccination passport (you can read all about that here) but Dominello reckons VaxPass will make it easier because check-in and vax status is in the one place.
The states wanted this functionality months ago, but the federal government only just gave them access to the Australian Immunisation Register (which is where your jab info is stored) last week.
Just like the Digital Driver’s Licence, it’s expected VaxPass will have a NSW Waratah logo hologram and rotating QR codes. The confirmation screen for the Service Victoria app has an animated background, making it harder to fake.
To integrate a COVID-19 digital vaccination certificate with the ServiceNSW or Service Victoria app, customers will need to have a MyGov account with Medicare linked and the Express Plus Medicare app.
Signing up for VaxPass will be optional, however.