A slew of tech companies are building and piloting COVID-19 vaccine passport apps.
In January, a collective of organizations, including Microsoft, Epic and Cerner, launched the Vaccine Credential Initiative to create a credential proving the user's vaccination before traveling or attending live, in-person events.
Other tech companies involved in the Vaccine Credential Initiative include Salesforce, Change Healthcare and Oracle. The group hopes to begin testing its technology this spring, with a formal launch targeted for midsummer, a Cerner executive told the Kansas City Star in February.
New York started a pilot program in March testing IBM's digital health passport, Excelsior Pass. It is being used during events in New York City's Madison Square Garden and Barclays Center to confirm COVID-19 vaccinations or recent negative COVID-19 tests.
New York and IBM are using the pilot program to improve on the pass before submitting it to Apple and Google for approval to use in their app stores, according to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.