April 12th, 2022

 

Panama, Uruguay, El Salvador and Colombia: The validation of digital vaccination certificates in the countries of the European Union

 

 

 

These are the only four Latin American countries to obtain this validation. The digital certificate certifies that a person has been vaccinated against COVID-19, has recovered from the disease or has a negative test for the virus, being a crucial tool for transit between borders in the European Union – and in the world – today.

 

Both Uruguay and El Salvador are part of the LACPass project, while Panama shared its experience within the framework of the Regional Public Good project "Digital transformation in health to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean" last November. Meanwhile, in Colombia, the measure came into force on April 2, after being accepted by the European Commission (EC), based in Brussels, Belgium.

 

LACPass is a multi-country initiative within the framework of RACSEL (American Network for Cooperation on Electronic Health) and sponsored by the IDB (Inter-American Development Bank), which aims to create bridges towards health care for all people in the region. from Latin America and the Caribbean. Participating in this project: Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname and Uruguay.

 

The digital transformation in health is key for this type of process, where the strengthening of capacities and collaborative work has been vital, making it possible to exchange data between countries in a secure way.

 

"With more than 1,700 million certificates issued to date, our work to facilitate safe travel continues", declared the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, who indicated that with Colombia and Malaysia -accepted on a par with Colombia- they are already 64 the countries and territories connected to the European Union system.

 

It is expected that in May of this year the LACPass team will be able to demonstrate the interoperability of more countries in the region so that, like Colombia, El Salvador, Panama and Uruguay, they will be accepted by the European Commission.