On April 15, the World Health Organization (WHO) held the seventh meeting of the Emergency Committee of the International Health Regulations (IHR). The meeting established the creation of a digital Documentation of COVID-19 certificates.
At the meeting they reached an agreement on the standardization of documentation in physical and digital format of COVID-19 travel-related risk reduction measures. The Emergency Committee suggested that WHO should: “Continue to update the WHO interim position on the considerations regarding requirements of proof of vaccination and to produce interim guidance and tools related to standardization of paper and digital documentation of COVID-19 travel-related risk reduction measures in the context of international travel.”
This will rename the Smart Vaccination Certificate that WHO had raised since last year to Digital Documentation of COVID-19 Certificates (DDCC). New guidance on this document will be published in three separate parts, which will help Member States know how to digitally structure the status of COVID-19 vaccination in their territories.
"These guidance documents will include critical components such as the minimum datasets, expected functionality of digital systems, and preferred terminology code systems," WHO explained. They will also include information on the digital architecture that exists in each country, taking into account HL7 and FHIR Implementation Guides.
They also announced that the Smart Vaccination Certificate Working Group will be disbanded as the new technical requirements for the DDCC and those of the group do not match each other. However, the work around DDCC will continue to include the joint work of WHO Member States
