SA’s vaccine certificate is finally here

The department of health on Tuesday launched South Africa’s long-awaited and the country’s first Covid vaccine certificate system – a move aligning SA to Europe and the United States.

The move has been hailed by tourism industry players as a step in the right direction.

Association of Southern African Travel Agents (Asata) chief executive Otto de Vries said Asata “has been advocating for a level of a globally recognised standard, simplicity and commonality in terms of how a lot of other markets are doing things”.

Federated Hospitality Association of Southern Africa national chair Rosemary Anderson said many of SA’s key source markets “have already or are in the process of implementing digital vaccine certificates or passports”.

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“International travellers will feel more secure in visiting South Africa if standardised processes and protocols are followed.”

Vaccinated people can retrieve their digital vaccine certificate by going to the department of health website and selecting “Get my vaccine certificate”.

They will be required to enter their details, including an ID, passport or refugee seeker number and their electronic vaccination data system number. This is not the vaccine code people were issued when booking through the EVDS.

Those who received the Pfizer vaccine would have received two proof of vaccination codes.

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