All vaccine apps may not be available by Friday

As of Friday, people in Saskatchewan will need to prove they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to do all kinds of things in public including eating in a restaurant, going to a bar and seeing a movie. However, those looking to do so in the most high-tech way possible may not be able to right away.

On Wednesday, the province announced its wallet and verifier apps were both available in the Apple Store for iOS devices. The wallet app wasn’t anywhere to be found on the Google Play app for Android users, though.

Davin Church, vice-president of programs and technology for eHealth, said they’re at the mercy of the Google process and the app could be available as late as Monday.

“We’re not sure, it’s a Google process where they are just going through the validation process and then once it’s approved by Google we would then work through the publishing where it takes another 24 hours to publish,” explained Church.

When asked whether, if it was going to take so long, the process should have been started sooner, Church said they did start it “some time ago”, it’s just taking longer than the Apple process.

It may be a bit more convenient, but the app is not the only way for someone to prove they’re vaccinated.

“The QR code is still available through the PDF or screenshot from your mySaskHealthRecord. So, (the app) is optional, it’s not a requirement though for the process,” said Church.

An older vaccine proof printout from MySaskHealthRecord or even the wallet card given when a person got their second vaccine could also be used as proof in Saskatchewan.

Federal proof

For the moment, Saskatchewan’s QR code proof of vaccination are expected to be able to be used for international travel or any incoming federal regulations for things like travel on planes and trains.

“The federal government is establishing its own QR code generation for the longer-term piece. However, in absence of that the work was done with the jurisdictions to build something as an interim option to support that,” said Church.

That’s why Church said the Saskatchewan codes were built to the federal specifications and standards – information eHealth only got its hands-on at the end of August and early September.

Conversations had been happening about a code, according to Church, but because there wasn’t any indication earlier in the summer that a proof of vaccination would be needed within Saskatchewan, work hadn’t started on it.

Privacy issues

Last week, the original QR codes were wiped from eHealth because of a privacy breach and new ones had to be issued. Church said eHealth hasn’t heard any direct feedback since about people no longer trusting the system.

Church pointed out that the issue was technical, not security, and said that the QR codes are secure.

“We did find the issue and the vendor has thoroughly tested that prior to reintroducing those QR codes,” Church said.

Church said they would expect bugs with any technical implementation, though they do take that original QR code problem seriously.