The World Health Organization (WHO) will use the European Union’s (EU) digital COVID certificate to launch a global digital certification scheme, thanks to a “historic” partnership signed on Monday.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and European Commissioner for Health Stella Kyriakides signed this “historic initiative to strengthen global health security” in Geneva.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the importance of digital health solutions to facilitate access to health services,” Mr. Tedros said during the signing ceremony.
He explained that the European health passport would be transformed into a “global public good”.
This future global digital certification system should, according to a press release from the WHO and the European Commission, “help facilitate mobility and protect citizens around the world against current and future health threats, including pandemics”. .
Crucial role
It is the first building block of the WHO’s global digital health certification network, which is to develop “a wide range of digital products to improve the health of all”, such as digital international vaccination records.
This network “will be an important part of our efforts to strengthen health systems and help our Member States better prepare for the next epidemic or pandemic,” Dr Tedros said.
“The network could also play a crucial role in cross-border humanitarian situations by ensuring people have access to their medical records when crossing borders due to conflict, climate crisis or other emergency situations. emergency,” he observed.
The EU health passport is already the most widespread in the world.
“With 80 countries and territories connected to the EU COVID-19 digital certificate, the EU has set a global standard. The European certificate has not only been an important tool in our fight against the pandemic, but it has also facilitated international travel and tourism”, underlined in the press release the European Commissioner Thierry Breton, in particular in charge of digital.
Mr. Tedros stressed that the future global digital certification system would be “based on the principles of fairness, innovation, transparency and protection of data and privacy”.
The WHO will not have access to personal data, to which only the authorities will have access.
“Privacy is key,” argued Dr Tedros, but the WHO will be able to verify the authenticity of the certificates.