Vaccine passports may be controversial and they may not be welcome everywhere, but like it or not, they are coming. In truth, they are already here.
As the number of governments, companies and entertainment venues requiring proof of vaccination grows, so too will the need to have some way of verifying your vaccine status at the door without risking the loss of your paper vaccine record.
Colorado now has a way.
In 2019, Gov. Jared Polis, a tech entrepreneur and early adopter, issued an executive order authorizing state agencies to begin accepting digital identification contained on smartphones. The technology had been piloted under Polis’s predecessor, John Hickenlooper, starting in 2017, but the executive order made the technology useful. Within weeks, “MyColorado ID,” a smartphone app that stores a digital copy of your drivers license, fishing license and other information, including insurance cards and vehicle registrations, was in use across the state.
The Colorado State Patrol accepts it just like a drivers license if you get caught speeding or are in a wreck, as do some local police and sheriffs agencies. Same for other state agencies. Liquor stores, title companies, and bars and restaurants have also signed on to the program to accept the digital ID.
And now, proof of vaccination can also be stored on the app.
Here's how you can add that vaccine record to your digital ID
Important note: This is all voluntary. Drivers licenses, fishing licenses and anything else you can put in the app are all still available and accepted in their traditional format, as is a vaccine record.
But if you want to use it, here’s how:
First, download the MyColorado ID app for Android at the Google Play store, or for iPhone at the Apple store. (You’ll need Android version 8.1 or higher, or Apple IOS 10.3 or higher on your phone).
Next, use your drivers license or official Colorado ID to register on your phone by following the instructions and letting your phone’s camera scan the back of the license or ID. The data is encrypted (and the state already has your identification information if you hold one of those cards).
Now click on the “my vaccine record” link on the home page. Again, the state already has this information, you are just asking them to share it back with you so you can keep it on your phone.
Confirm your name, date of birth and gender as listed on your vaccine identification card. Then enter your phone number or email address.
Your vaccine record should appear and ask if you want to download it to your device. Once you do that, you will have it with you anytime you have your phone.
If you have trouble, you can email [email protected] and provide your name, date of birth, phone number and the date(s) you got your vaccines. The state also has a video tutorial showing how to get registered on the app.
Still to be determined is whether the vaccine record stored in the MyColorado app will be valid in another state, or another nation. New York City, for example, will soon require proof of vaccination to enter restaurants or other entertainment venues, but, for now at least, you have to have your paper card, or one of that city or state’s own apps.
So, if traveling, you might want to keep the vaccine card handy until states and nations settle on accepted, shared ways to prove status.
