Microsoft, Salesforce, Oracle Join Hands To Develop COVID-19 Vaccine Passports

A coalition made up of health and technology companies which include both Microsoft Corporation MSFT, Salesforce.com Inc CRM, and Oracle Corporation ORCL is working on developing a digital passport for COVID-19 vaccines.

What Happened: The Vaccine Credential Initiative also includes MITRE, Mayo Clinic, Evernorth, The Commons Project Foundation, and CARIN Alliance among others, as per a statement issued Thursday. 

“As the world begins to recover from the pandemic, having electronic access to vaccination, testing, and other medical records will be vital to resuming travel and more,” said Mike Sicilia, executive vice president of Oracle’s global business units. 

The group anticipates that a trustworthy, traceable, verifiable, and universally recognized digital record of vaccination is urgently needed.

Why It Matters: The body wants to empower individuals to obtain an encrypted copy of the inoculation credentials and store it in a digital wallet of choice — like those provided by Apple Inc AAPL or Alphabet Inc GOOGL GOOG unit Google.

Alternatively, users could print out a paper copy of the credentials containing a QR code.
See Also: How Oracle Is Tracking COVID-19 Vaccinations In The Cloud

Last month, the International Air Transport Association also unveiled the key design elements of its IATA Travel Pass which helps travelers secure and manage travel in line with government requirements for COVID-19 testing or vaccine information. 

The IATA app is due for release in the first quarter of this year and would be available on both the iOS and Android platforms.

Price Action: Microsoft shares closed nearly 1.5% lower at $213.02 on Thursday and rose 0.23% in the after-hours session. On the same day, Oracle shares closed almost 0.8% lower at $61.60.