The Ministry of Health and Social Services on Tuesday announced that it will issue COVID-19 digital vaccination certificates “soon”.
This announcement follows an indication by South Africa that vaccination cards will no longer be accepted and that travellers are required to present vaccination certificates for entry into the neighbouring country.
In a media release on Tuesday, the Ministry of Health’s Executive Director Ben Nangombe said the ministry, in collaboration with the African Union and Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, with technical support from the PanaBios Consortium, has implemented the Trusted Travel System to authenticate and verify travellers’ COVID-19 test result certificates.
“A module in the system, the Trusted Vaccines, is used to generate digital vaccination certificates for people who are fully vaccinated. The Trusted Vaccine module in the Trusted Travel System has been customised for Namibia,” he noted.
Nangombe added that it is currently being refined to iron out glitches identified during the troubleshooting process before it is officially launched and operationalised, with the remaining work expected to be completed in two weeks.
The ED noted that the ministry is engaging South African authorities on possible interim measures to facilitate entry for travellers from Namibia into South Africa until the Trusted Vaccines system is rolled out.
In the meantime, those who wish to travel to South Africa are advised to obtain negative PCR COVID-19 test results, as required by South Africa.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
