Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez on Friday said the digital vaccination card system will be issued by the Department of Information and Technology (DICT) in a month which will be helpful in business establishment transactions.

“We are creating it now… I am very sure in one month the digital card will be released, hopefully a QR code also, where the vaccine ID will be centralized, consolidated and in digital form,” Lopez said.

“The digital system is a good thing and according to DICT, after one month it will be released,” he said.

Lopez said using a digital vaccination card will make sure that the person is the one that was really vaccinated.

Earlier, Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said senior citizens who are fully vaccinated against coronavirus disease are allowed to go out of their residences subject to certain conditions.

Lopez said persons who are 65 years old and above who are fully vaccinated must show the LGU-issued vaccination card for now when entering business establishments.

Government data showed a total of 6,096,208 jabs were administered to priority groups A1 (healthcare workers), A2 (senior citizens), A3 (persons with comorbidities), and A4 (economic frontliners)

Last month, Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion said digital vaccination cards can help speed up reopening of the economy and business leaders proposed for a unified vaccine pass system in digital form.

“The general agreement among the business groups was that vaccine cards should be in a digital form so that data can be centralized with the national government, and that the cards should be able to resist forgery and can take into account future vaccinations against mutations or variants of COVID-19,” he said. Ella Dionisio/DMS