Apple announced Tuesday that it will soon be possible in iOS 15.1 to add and store verifiable health records in the Health app, including COVID-19 vaccines and test results.
“The verifiable medical records in the Health app are based on the SMART Health Cards specification. Users can choose to share verifiable health records stored in the Health application with approved third-party applications that request this information, such as airlines, venues, and other companies that facilitate in-person interactions. ” explained Apple.
“And in an upcoming software update, they can also choose to add verifiable COVID-19 vaccination records as an Apple Wallet vaccination card to present at businesses, venues and more.”
The ability in iOS 15.1 to allow you to save your vaccine card in the Health app and Apple Wallet means that a screenshot of your QR code is no longer displayed.
Instead, you can quickly access your vaccination card from the Wallet app on the iPhone (double-tap the sleep / wake button for those with Face ID; double-tap the home button for those with Touch ID).
For those in BC, we just verified that the QR code from the latter’s vaccine card can be stored in the Health and Wallet app on the iPhone.
Simply put, all you need to do is point your iPhone camera at the vaccine’s QR code, then tap on the link to open it in Health (it’s yellow) and tap on “Add to Wallet & Health.”
After that, you will have a fancy vaccination card in the Wallet app, as seen below:
If your province or territory supports the SMART Health Card specification, you can add your vaccination card to both the Health app and the Wallet app on the iPhone. The SMART Health Card QR code format is currently supported in BC, Saskatchewan, and Quebec, and is a federal government requirement.
Those in Ontario can use this tool to create a version of your vaccine QR code to store in the Wallet app.
Apple released iOS 15.1 beta for developers today and the public launch of the latter should occur in the coming weeks.