Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins both say venues requiring Covid-19 vaccine passes will be able to check them visually instead of using an official app if they wish to.
But the Ministry of Health’s website for the verifier app disagreed, saying vaccine passes would need to be scanned to “allow entry”.
“Visually checking passes isn't enough to allow entry. Scanning someone’s pass proves that it is authentic, valid, and has not expired,” the website said.
Under the new traffic light framework the Government is moving the country into on December 3, businesses that require vaccine passes have far greater freedom to operate.
The Government launched the vaccine passes last week followed by a scanning app for businesses to check if the passes are legitimate on Tuesday.
But Ardern was quick to note businesses could choose to “sight” the passes instead of using the app if that was more practicable.
“The app is a handy tool, but it is not a requirement to operate. You can sight someone’s vaccine pass, and if you have any concerns you can ask for verifier ID,” Ardern said.
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Hipkins agreed but cautioned the Government could require some passes to be checked.
A spokesman for Hipkins later said the Ministry of Health website’s information was based on an “early assumption”.
Hipkins said on Tuesday businesses might be required to scan a certain proportion of vaccine passes to make sure they were legitimate if the Government suspected a large amount of fraud.
But in general, businesses would be able to visually sight the passes
He said the vast majority of businesses were likely to use the app as the best way to comply with their legal responsibility to keep people safe.
“It’s unlikely that we would require that people use the verifier app for every single person coming onto their premises, but we always have the ability to say that they should be checking a certain proportion,” Hipkins said.
“We’ll be monitoring it over the first few weeks to see how the system rolls out. If there is a need to see, you know, greater requirements around the use of the verifier then I wouldn't take that off the table.”
The Government said 1.47 million people had downloaded a vaccine pass as of 10.30am on Tuesday – meaning that about 42 per cent of the 3.52 million people who were double vaccinated had downloaded a pass.
Ardern said later on Tuesday that the vaccine verifier app would be a useful backup to check for fraudulent passes.
“The vaccine verification app is a way that we've got a ready-to-go tool that if people do have concerns around whether or not passes are being used appropriately or whether or not they're being doctored, we've got a backup measure to be able to readily and easily check that they are valid passes,” Ardern said.
“From what I’ve seen most countries have run pretty crude systems. Some have used cardboard cards similar to what you got when you were vaccinated. We have designed something with more integrity around it than that.”
Hipkins has been asked for comment on the discrepancy between the Ministry of Health website and the guidance from ministers.
