Estonia is preparing to issue digital vaccination certificates as early as April, an official from the Ministry of Social Affairs announced on Wednesday (March 24th).
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We plan to have our certificates ready in April, together with our partner (Estonian company) Guardtime,
” said Kalle Killar, Undersecretary for Digital Health and Innovation in this ministry.
Read also: Covid-19: is the European Union preparing a vaccination passport or a health certificate?
The digital certificate will help its users both in travel and in their everyday life and will be easier to control and more secure than its paper equivalent, said Kalle Killar.
According to him, a global vaccination certificate, which the Estonian government is working on with the World Health Organization (WHO), will likely take years to put in place.
Estonia, a tech-savvy Baltic country and a testing ground for many innovations, has one of the highest Covid-19 infection rates in Europe.
Its prime minister Kaja Kallas is currently in quarantine after testing positive for the coronavirus.
This EU country of 1.3 million inhabitants also has one of the highest vaccination rates in Europe (13% of the population had received at least one dose on Tuesday).
The European Union has announced plans for digital vaccination certificates before the summer to facilitate travel.