Fri, Jan 21, 2022 page1

• Vaccination pass policy to begin today

  PAPERS, PLEASE: A digital certificate or a printout would return one of three results: green for ‘pass,’ red for ‘not passed’ or yellow for ‘to be determined,’ the CECC said

  • By Shelley Shan / Staff reporter
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  Starting today, people can download a Digital COVID-19 Certificate, with the government now requiring people at night clubs, karaoke bars and other businesses in “eight major special establishment categories” to be fully vaccinated and present a vaccination certificate.

  The eight categories include dance venues, massage parlors, hostess bars and saunas.

  Customers and service personnel at the venues have a higher risk of contracting COVID-19, as they can neither avoid contact with people nor strictly observe distancing guidelines, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said.

  

  A sample Digital COVID-19 Certificate is pictured in an image provided by the Central Epidemic Command Center.

  Photo courtesy of Central Epidemic Command Center

  As such, both groups are required to be fully vaccinated, meaning that they must have had at least a second dose of an approved COVID-19 vaccine more than 14 days earlier, the CECC said.

  When accessing these facilities, people should present a valid vaccination certificate, and businesses should deny entry to those who do not produce one, it said.

  Service personnel who are not fully vaccinated must test negative each week, it said.

  Tseng Pi-yun (曾碧雲), a senior specialist at the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Department of Commerce, told the CECC’s daily media briefing that management at such facilities would accept a paper vaccination certificate, also known as the “Yellow Card,” or a Digital COVID-19 Certificate.

  People can also show their vaccination record on the National Health Insurance Express app, Tseng said.

  Prior to the announcement, the CECC had enforced a similar policy for visitors, caregivers, patients and healthcare providers at hospitals and nursing homes, although they can provide a negative COVID-19 test instead.

  Asked if such policy would one day apply to restaurants, movie theaters and other venues, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC, said that the private sector and local governments are welcome to enforce their own policies or require the certificate as they see fit.

  With New Taipei City soon to bar entry to visitors at elementary schools, kindergartens and childcare facilities without a COVID-19 certificate to protect students under the age of 12, who are not eligible for COVID-19 vaccination, Chen said that “the CECC would not object to the city government’s policy.”

  Restaurateurs can enforce such a policy, provided that they do so in ways that do not constitute collective action, he said.

  Last year, the CECC launched a platform where people planning to travel overseas can apply for a digital vaccination certificate.

  A new version of the platform — at dvc.mohw.gov.tw/maintenance-dcc — is to be launched at 8am today, the center said, adding that people can get a “green” pass with if they are fully vaccinated, have tested negative or have recovered from COVID-19.

  The old platform asked people to register with their passport number, but the new platform requires household registration, a national ID and national health insurance documents, it said.

  The system complies with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation and can be used to verify vaccination status and polymerase chain reaction test results issued by 60 countries, the CECC said.

  A platform-issued certificate — which would be converted into a QR code — can be printed or be stored in apps that require name registration, it said.

  “Apps that comply with the EU’s principles of handling personal data — minimum disclosure, right to data portability and right to forget — can link to the platform with the CECC’s permission,” Chen said after Taipei officials asked whether the city’s TaipeiPass could be used with the platform.

  Upon presentation at a business, the certificates would return one of three results: green — from being fully vaccinated, testing negative or having recovered from an infection — meaning “pass”; red, meaning “not passed”; or yellow, meaning “to be determined,” the CECC said.
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