SINGAPORE, 22 November 2021: Affinidi Travel, the travel division of Singapore-based technology company, Affinidi, is working closely with authorities in Singapore on an ongoing pilot programme that digitally verifies the validity of overseas vaccination certificates.
The pilot project will confirm the authenticity of certificates and ensure they comply with the rules set by healthcare authorities, as well as to detect fraudulent health credentials under the country’s Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTLs). The efforts aim to reopen borders safely and facilitate a seamless travel experience while safeguarding public health.
Under the VTLs, travellers will be allowed to enter Singapore without the need to serve Stay-Home Notice (SHN) if they are fully vaccinated. Short-term Visitors and long-term pass holders arriving from the countries using the VTL will need to apply for a Vaccinated Travel Pass (VTP) and get their vaccination status checked prior to entry into Singapore.
Affinidi Travel’s verification solution, Unifier, has been integrated into the government-designated website through a pilot programme to ensure that vaccination certificates issued by the VTL countries and presented for entry to Singapore by VTL travellers are authentic and that only travellers who meet the VTL criteria are allowed into Singapore. With Unifier in place, authorities can verify health credentials efficiently while guarding against fraudulent certificates. Unifier is well-positioned to verify certificates from other countries in future, as and when the VTL is expanded.
Affinidi vice president and general manager, health and travel Gina Chiang said, “As Singapore reopens its borders to more travellers, strong safeguards are needed to ensure that public health is not compromised, especially while the Covidd-19 situation remains volatile due to changing restrictions and stakeholders are dealing with high volumes of travellers’ data on a daily basis… We remain committed to working closely with Singapore authorities to enable the verification of health certifications in a seamless, secure and privacy-preserving manner that is essential to facilitating safe travels around the world.”
Affinidi’s technology is also being used to verify travellers’ Covid test results, presented in the form of an electronic PDF or a physical document, at check-in counters to determine that travellers’ health credentials are valid and comply with the destination country’s entry requirements.
Beyond Singapore, Unifier can verify Covid-19 digital credentials from over 2,000 healthcare labs worldwide and read eight other national health standards for vaccination certificates to which over 30 countries adhere to such as the EU Digital Covid certificate, Malaysia’s MySejahtera, Hong Kong’s HealthCode, Israel’s Green Pass, India’s DIVOC, Singapore’s HealthCerts, Korea’s COOV, Australia’s ICA VDS and other digital credentials such as IATA Travel Pass, AOK Health Pass, and SMART Health Cards.
