Singapore and the African Union (AU), through the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), have established a framework for mutual recognition of digital COVID-19 vaccination certificates.
The move, aimed at facilitating the resumption of travel between Singapore and countries in Africa, is expected to start Monday, May 23.
A statement from the Ministry of Transport, Singapore African Union, outlined the procedure to follow when the move becomes effective.
“With mutual recognition, from 23 May, fully vaccinated travelers with digital COVID-19 vaccination certificates issued in the African Union, via the Africa CDC’s Trusted Travel (TT) and Trusted Vaccines (TV) platforms (trustedtravel.panabios.org), can upload and validate their certificates through the Vaccination Check Portal (VCP) or the Singapore Arrival Card (SGAC) to verify their vaccination status. This will allow them to enter Singapore without quarantine and/or testing under the Vaccinated Travel Framework.
“Similarly, fully vaccinated travellers with digital COVID-19 vaccination certificates issued in Singapore (i.e. HealthCerts) can securely obtain Vaccination Passes on the AU TT and TV platforms”, parts of the statement read.
Persons fully vaccinated in Singapore can apply for a digital vaccination HealthCert, issued by the Singapore Ministry of Health (MOH), via the Notαrise website (notarise.gov.sg). The vaccination HealthCerts will be sent by Notαrise to the individual’s email and/or via the Singpass app.
More about the TT and TV platforms
The platforms are based on the African Union standard for harmonizing digital passes and health-related screening standards across Africa for seamless travel. The TT ecosystem especially gives governments and eligible organizations access to a network of platforms for health credential issuance, border risk management, digital public health surveillance, and lab, clinical and vaccination registries.
The TT and TV platforms have been operational since the last quarter of 2020 and have currently fully on-boarded, or are finalising the onboarding of (either directly or through regional initiatives like WAHO’s BIOMARS and ECSA’s DELPHIX1 ), 21 major African destinations including Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana, Namibia, Kenya and Rwanda, with plans to onboard all African countries in the next few months.
Through the new PolyGlot standards adapter, the TT and TV systems also facilitate the interoperability of African digital COVID-19 platforms and those of other continents.
The PanaBIOS Consortium, a multi-stakeholder initiative convened under the aegis of the African Union, provided technical support, under the UNDP-sponsored Global Haven program, for the attainment of this Global Health milestone.
