South Korea's prime minister said that only people with vaccine passports will be allowed to resume normal life. The south-east Asian country is the latest to launch a vaccine certification system.
“The introduction of a vaccine passport or ‘Green Pass' will only allow those who have been vaccinated to experience the recovery to their daily lives,” South Korea's PM Chung Sye-Kyun said while unveiling the new COVID-19 vaccination certification system.
Before the end of this month, South Koreans will have an app that will show a person's vaccination status.
South Korea's vaccination program started in February. So far, more than 850,000 people have received a coronavirus jab. The government hopes to have vaccinated 12 million of its almost 52 million population by June.
Other countries that have launched vaccination certification systems include China and the EU. In the US, only the state of New York has such a program although President Biden is reportedly wanting to implement a federal passport system.
The idea of vaccine passports remains very controversial due to privacy and discrimination concerns, not to mention the massive threat to civil liberties -with critics like Florida's Gov. Ron DeSantis dismissed the idea as an unnecessary restriction on people's freedoms.
Meanwhile, others, like the G7 and China, are considering a global or universal vaccination passport system.
