Covid vaccination certificates – unpacked

The global rollout of various vaccines has moved humanity a step closer to a post-Covid-19 world. But it has brought with it several other challenges. To address some of these, the Estonian government has gone live with Guardtime’s VaccineGuard.

Bordered by the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Finland, Estonia will extend its vaccination programme with secure and internationally verifiable VaccineGuard certificates from Guardtime – a platform for ensuring real-time integrity for data and systems at scale.

VaccineGuard vaccination certificates, issued through the national patient portal, will comply with the proposed EU green certificate, once deployed. The platform can be linked to the full supply chain of each individual vaccine, enabling rapid root-cause analysis in the event of adverse reactions.

In the next phase, Covid-test results and recovery confirmation will be issued from the platform, with the same integrity guarantee that the data originates from a legitimate source and process.

VaccineGuard will also allow pharma manufacturers to work with the government, and their care provider clients, to see through the last mile of the pharmaceutical value chain for real-time stock and supply availability.

Kersti Kaljulaid, president of Estonia, says: “As one of the most digitally advanced nations in the world, we are very excited to offer our citizens a trustworthy Covid-19 vaccine certificate, providing another major step on our road back to normality.

“Online-only meetings are not enough to ensure true connectivity; people also need the freedom to travel for both business and leisure. I am glad Estonia has developed a trustworthy and technically advanced certificate programme. Along with Guardtime, Estonia is keen to share our experience in managing our vaccination programme and the development of our certificate initiative with all interested parties.” 

Guardtime is working with multiple manufacturers and governments around the world to see VaccineGuard deployed at scale, with a special focus on COVAX facility countries, where counterfeit vaccines are a major issue and centralised ERP systems are complex to establish.

Kuuno Vaher, general manager for Central Europe and Baltics at the British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, adds: “VaccineGuard is a real breakthrough for pharma companies who wish to take advantage of the investments in serialisation but lose visibility over products as they exit their existing supply chains.

“VaccineGuard is an example of innovation brought by the pandemic, providing real-time visibility for product planning and supporting our government clients in counterfeit detection and pharmaco-vigilance.”

Ain Aaviksoo, chief medical officer of Guardtime, says: “This is a very proud moment for us, and we are delighted to have played such a key role in helping the Estonian government with its Covid-19 vaccination programme. Having quality data that is up to date, reliable and easy to share is key to winning the battle against the Coronavirus, and VaccineGuard can play a vital role in this.”