EU Covid cert to go global in WHO deal

The World Health Organization will use the European Union's digital Covid pass as a basis for a global certification system, according to a new partnership deal.

WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides signed a "landmark" agreement in Geneva yesterday.

"The pandemic highlighted the value of digital health solutions in facilitating access to health services," Tedros said.

The EU's Covid certificate would now be transformed into "a global public good," as a first step in the creation of a global digital health certification network.

The network will expand to include things like digitized international routine vaccination cards, Tedros said.

It will be aimed at helping protect people from health threats, including future pandemics, and facilitate global mobility.

The certificate "showed our citizens the light at the end of the tunnel and protected at the same time public health amid the uncertainty of the pandemic," Kyriakides said.

"And this EU success story quickly became a global standard," she said, pointing out that nearly 80 countries is using it.

Tedros stressed that the new system would be "based on the principles of transparency and data protection and privacy."