Malaysia and close neighbour Singapore have decided to mutually recognise each other’s vaccination certificates as soon as the borders between the two countries reopen. National Recovery Council (NRC) chairman Muhyiddin Yassin said that when the mutual recognition is implemented, then movement between Malaysia and Singapore could resume.
He added that after the border with Singapore reopens, the government would also look into reopening the border with Thailand and other international borders. However, travel between Malaysia and Singapore is currently only allowed for drivers and attendants of lorries and trailers who have been fully vaccinated.
“In all our meetings, we always discuss when we will open our borders to local and foreign tourists,” said the chairman. “We will look at all the data and science, as well as the opinions of experts from the Health Ministry and the Home Ministry in terms of border security.”
While Malaysia’s proof of COVID-19 vaccination is kept on the MySejahtera app, Singapore’s is kept on the city state’s HealthHub app. It’s worth noting that as of now, Malaysians who are vaccinated in foreign countries such as Singapore must verify their vaccination with local district health offices for the vaccination status to appear on their MySejahtera account.
Khairy Jamaluddin, co-chair of JKJAV, had already met up with the Singaporean Foreign Minister back in March to discuss interoperability between the two countries’ vaccination certificates, claiming that both are secured using blockchain technology. Meanwhile, the government has also developed an app to verify the authenticity of vaccine certificates, which supposedly also works with verifying certificates from Singapore and the EU.
(Source: NST, StraitsTimes // Image: Khairy Jamaluddin/Twitter)
