California Digital Certificates

This is a good thing. I hope it trends to other states especially mine. It’s not a “passport” per se but at least official proof of vaccination.

I am planning a trip for this fall. Last night I woke in a cold sweat. In my dreams I had lost my vaccination cards. I guess I'm worried about that subconsciously!

Jules - scan them into your phone. At least its another layer of security

Thanks cchqpin100, I registered for mine and sent it to my phone’s Notes.

I took screen shots too and saved to Photos on my phone as well.

Yep, scanned them the day we received the 2nd vaccine and emailed them to myself as well!

“Breaking News”. This digital certificate was announced just 2 hours ago...I love when the RS Forum breaks news. My California county sent digital certificates after we completed our second shot. Exported mine to my iPhone Wallet.

Now updating to the State version. Thanks cchapin!

Yes, thanks Chapin. I appreciate your heads up very much.
What a relief this is.

So happy about this. My son and 3 friends flew from SF to Paris via Lisbon yesterday/today and it was stressful to know the CDC card is irreplaceable and now more important than a passport which is replaceable. This takes that stress away.

Or, like me, you could get the digital copy and realize California doesn't have record of your second shot, received 7 weeks ago. Don't know if the problem is with CVS (so far they say they can't do anything about it) or the State, but am hopeful my primary care physician can get it straightened out. I know I have the paper card, but would really like having that backup, for as we all know, stuff happens.

I just saw this a few seconds ago on the local news. Yay, I think!

I am always weary of posts that say "click this link"...so thanks for chiming in all that this is legit. I will have to read up on it to see how to proceed. I am wondering if each State will now have its own version, would be nice if this could just be done on the federal level.

Wow....this is great---I hope every state does this. Then, the immigration officers in all countries around the world will have to learn 50+ different forms just from the U.S. alone. Of course, so far, they have accepted just the CDC card which is the same for all Americans.

The QR code contains the information that’s on the CDC card, no more or less. It will be easier to “read” the code than decipher hand written, in some cases, card data. If one state can do it, the rest should be able to code data into a QR code if their state health departments and governors allow it.

• Or, like me, you could get the digital copy and realize California doesn't have record of your second shot, received 7 weeks ago. Don't know if the problem is with CVS (so far they say they can't do anything about it) or the State, but am hopeful my primary care physician can get it straightened out. I know I have the paper card, but would really like having that backup, for as we all know, stuff happens.*

Eric
This happened to me so I called the immunization office in my county and had them enter my info for the second shot as that was missing. I sent her a copy of my CDC card for her to enter my info to the State site.
It did help that I was a former supervisor in Disease Control and Prevention for the same county and knew her.
You might try a phone call to your county Immunization Office.

Very cool!

The link to the digital certificate and QR code is good for 24 hours. It doesn't seem to produce a pkpass file that you can save in an app, such as you might for a digital admission ticket. (Dresden ballet used pkpass digital tickets, so I figured that one out.)

So, do you just visit the site each time you need to show the certificate? Easily done if you were attending a ball game, for example. Or can a QR scanner read the screenshot I took of it? My screenshot only captured the QR code; it couldn't also capture that data fields, which were further down the certificate.

ETA: I did manage to get a screenshot that included both the QR code and the data fields, so perhaps that is sufficient.

Clearly, I need a technology primer on this!

I got mine and did a screen shot. Great idea to the person who suggested sending it to a note on their phone. I’m going to try that.

Diane, thank you so much for tip! I'm waiting to hear back from my PCP to see if her office can take care of it. If not, I'll be contacting my county health office. Thanks again!

Being really curious I had my son send me his QR code and decoded it. It is a "URI" (not a URL) which encodes a "Smart Health Card." (Tech geeks: the URI is "shc:/(long string of digits). See https://smarthealth.cards/). The scheme appears to be safe and secure from a privacy and personal data standpoint. It does however require a validation app of some form validate and decode.

I'm still curious as to whether the EU or others will accept the California certificates on their face (they would have to be able to read and verify them), or whether the California certificates could be used in an automated way to obtain a European "Green" certificate.

An article in our local paper this AM said there is an app being developed to “read” the California QR code and it should be available in a few weeks. Stay tuned...

I was able to get mine but hubby can’t. He’s tried all of our phone numbers and emails. He spoke with someone in the office that was sent to him for troubleshooting. The man he spoke with said there are issues with the system and said he may hear back in 2-3 weeks. I’ll make my call to the County IZ office tomorrow and see if his phone number is even in his demographics.

New York state has had its own version of this since March. To date I have never been asked to see it for nor do I know of any business or event that requires it for entrance or admission. According to the NY Times the state has spent ten of millions of dollars on it what is essential just a QR code on your smartphone/PDF you print out at home.

I think the NY one will make it easy for NYers to get into Foo Fighters tonight? That’s a vaccinated only show.

We took screen shots of our CA codes, printed them and stored on Notes. Nice to have if for nothing else, a back up for the CDC cards.

Now for my big question:
All my medical records are under the name I used at work, Laura MarriedName#1 -- including the vaccine record.
My passport is under Laura MarriedName#1 MarriedName#2 (kept that way to make it easier when traveling with yound daughter so our last names matched.)
EDIT -- The CDC card has hand-printed name to match the medical organization's records plus hand-printed AKA with the passport name -- but the California digital certificate only contains the medical records name.
Anybody want to hazard a guess at whether I will get stopped at immigration in November ??

Laura.....does the name on your CDC card match your passport?

Everyone now thinks they will need a California digital certificate to travel internationally. Let me remind everyone.....so far all any American has needed was the CDC card. But so many people are convinced that they will need more.

I ask again, and I've asked over and over.....show me one country that is allowing Americans in that has not accepted the CDC card as proof of vaccination?

I don’t think people believe they need a California or NY digital certificate to travel BUT both are digital, the CA one at least is not able to be replicated (QR code) and is an extra layer of proof beyond the CDC card. Plus it’s on your phone.

Italy has clarified that they will accept the American "White Card" (their words), meaning the CDC paper card. The CA certificate requires a separate app for whoever is verifying it.

Some people on Reddit r/travel have reported they were able to get the EU "Green" certificate in Germany by presenting their CDC cards at a local pharmacy. Decidedly YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary) there; some posters had no trouble, others had no luck.

What’s the benefit of getting a Green Certificate when countries allowing Americans in are accepting our CDC card?

Maybe in case you lose the white card? Though I know most of us will guard it like we do our passports. I had to travel for years with the yellow card, guarded that like my passport. I think the CA and NY digital record is just an extra layer of protection unless you lose your phone, lol.