In terms of medical expertise, the ‘COVID Green Cards’ is considered a form of recognition for a person who has acquired immunity to protect the body against SARS-CoV-2 thanks to vaccination or has already been recovered from COVID-19 and the completed of mandatory isolation.

Getting the full 2- dose course of COVID-19 vaccines is an important criterion for the application of the ‘Covid-19 Green Cards'  model

Implementing the ‘COVID Green Cards’ can bring many positive impacts to people's lives during the economic recovery period.

The green cards help the monitoring of people who would become eligible to travel and work based on COVID preventive criteria. It also features information about holders’ vaccination, COVID testing and health declaration status.

According to health experts, the application of the ‘COVID Green Cards’ model facilitates localities whose population has been vaccinated against the disease to gradually ease the social distancing restrictions to pave the away for socio-economic restoration as well as encourages citizens to be subject to vaccination for holding ‘COVID green cards’ for more convenient travel.

Over recent times, Ho Chi Minh City is one of the pioneering localities in piloting the application of the above-mentioned model into reality.

‘COVID Green Cards’ are issued to people who are vaccinated after a minimum of two weeks from the time they get their second shot of the Astrazeneca, Pfizer, Moderna, Sinopharm, or Sputnik V vaccine or one shot of Johnson & Johnson's Janssen vaccine or if they have fully recovered after contracting COVID.

The cards are valid for six months.

However, the card holders must still comply with the 5K rules and undergo periodic tests according to the regulations of the Vietnamese Ministry of Health with the frequency of the tests depends on the level of risk of the sectors and professions.

In terms of form, Ho Chi Minh City’s Department of Health has recommended using a single term ‘COVID Green Cards’ integrated into the “HCM Health” app in a bid to facilitate people when declaring that they have been vaccinated, together with the integration of the COVID-19 testing results and medical declarations. In addition, this app also clearly show whether you have received one dose or two doses of vaccines.

Those self-testing, self-isolating at home and receiving confirmation of the completion of the isolation period by local health facilities or the leader of residential groups and volunteer healthcare groups are considered to have completed the at-home isolation period.

As for other cases that are not confirmed by the above-mentioned organisations or individuals must be vaccinated against COVID-19 to be granted ‘COVID Green Cards’.

In point of fact, this colour categorising has been conducting in China since last year. Those carrying the green QR code can travel without restrictions, those carrying the yellow colour may be required to quarantine at home for 7 days. Many European countries such as Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Portugal use similar mechanisms for cross-border travel.

Nevertheless, this model still faces many difficulties and questions since residents’ vaccination data are still not fully recorded and synchronized on electronic management systems. In addition, if the ‘COVID Green Cards’ are improperly implemented, it will give rise to abuse of power or make it difficult for people and generate more cumbersome procedures. In addition, card holders are prone to subjective psychology in the prevention of COVID-19 due to their thinking that they can not spread the virus to others.

Currently, COVID-19 prevention and control duties have given priority to maximize vaccine to all residents to attain herd immunity or control the number of hospitalizations within the capacity of the health system. The implementation of the ‘COVID Green Cards’ is only effective in the short term while vaccines have not widely been administered in the community. Therefore, localities need to consider carefully before widely implementing this model, in order to ensure long-term effectiveness and avoid wasting effort, time and money in completing data for the application of this model.

Reporting by DOAN HAO LUONG- Translating by T.VY