WHO is seeking public comments on its draft version of Interim guidance for Digital Documentation of COVID-19 Certificates: Test Results. On 27 August 2021, WHO published Digital Documentation of COVID-19 Certificates: Vaccination Status Technical Specifications and Implementation Guidance (DDCC:VS). Like the DDCC:VS document, Digital Documentation of COVID-19 Certificates: Test Results (DDCC:TR) provides a baseline set of requirements, including interoperability standards, for digital documentation of test results.
The draft version of the Digital Documentation of COVID-19 Certificates: Test Results – Technical Specifications and Implementation Guidance document (DDCC:TR) is being released for public comments, prior to the release of the final version. This draft version contains operational elements for implementing DDCC:TR including scenarios of use, generation and verification workflows, a core data set with preferred terminology code systems, functional and non-functional requirements, and a Health Level Seven (HL7) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) Implementation Guide for consistent data representation between digital systems used across countries. This draft also includes implementation guidance regarding ethical considerations, data protection principles, and national governance considerations in the broader context of national health information systems. Note that as this is an initial release of the technical specification for the DDCC:TR, no digital solutions have met this specification yet.
The final version of the DDCC:TR aims to establish the specifications and standards for a digitized SARS-CoV-2 test result certificate, which can be used as proof of negative test results or proof of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection for international travel and/or individualized exemptions from public health and social measures. It is at the discretion of countries to determine the policies, informed by their current COVID-19 epidemiological situation and existing legal obligations, for appropriate use of these digital tools. Note that DDCC:TR focuses solely on the digital requirements. This guidance has been developed with the support of a multi-disciplinary group of experts who informed the specifications to ensure the digital tools for documenting test results would be interoperable and support the two proof scenarios: proof of negative SARS-CoV-2 test result and proof of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection.
The draft DDCC:TR document can be accessed here.
As part of the public consultation, you can provide constructive feedback on this document by Monday, 29 November 2021. Please use this link to the feedback form to provide your comments.
For any additional inquiries, please contact smartvaccination@who.int.