By Sharleen Mohammed

The Ministry of health and childcare (MoHCC) says the activation of QR codes for vaccination cards will now be expanded to other parts of the country in a bid to bring convenience to travellers.

Government introduced vaccination cards with QR codes in 2021 to prevent the duplication of vaccination cards by scammers.

However, until now, the cards were only being activated at the ministry’s headquarters in Harare.

“As part of its Covid-19 vaccination roll out effort, created a secure Covid-19 vaccination certificate which provided for electronic authentication of the vaccination record,” the ministry said in a statement.

“Due to the threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to urgently roll-out the COVID-19 vaccination program, the latest COVID 19 vaccination certificates were issues with pre-printed QR codes that are blank and require to be activated by loading electronic data onto them,” reads the statement.

Ministry said it has commenced an exercise to activate these QR codes which are now a requirement for travel to some countries.

“However, given that the number of people who have received at least the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to date is now exceeding 5 million, we are currently reserving this functionality to individuals traveling out of the country while plans are being made to open this up to the greater public,” the ministry said.

“The Ministry of health and child care, for the convenience of the public, has begun the process of decentralizing the activation process for travellers and will be releasing updated lists of activation points countrywide on a regular basis. Members of the public are advised to approach the following ministry of health and childcare offices or points for the activation of their cards.”