There is worrying news that people are supplying fake COVID-19 test information to enter Caribbean states. In the US Virgin Islands, seven American visitors face heavy fines and possible jail time for falsely claiming that they were COVID-19-free.

This news comes when several Caribbean states are working to restore the tourism sector while managing the health of the local populations. News of these fakes does little to reduce the concerns raised about the implementation of COVID-19 passports. Crucial consultations are taking place around the possible implementation of the passport to facilitate the resumption of international holiday travel.

The passport may have been the subject of movie scripts but is now a case of life imitating art as countries work to ensure that their visitors and residents are protected. So far, a few countries have already instituted some form of a COVID-19 passport. The leading move includes neighbours Australia and New Zealand, countries which boast the best experiences in controlling the spread of COVID-19. The passport, a so-called “Green Pass”, has been deployed for premises or events within Israel and the “Green Health Code” has been issued for domestic travel and entry into certain premises within mainland China. The EU has proposed a “Digital Green Certificate” for travelling between member countries and abroad.

At heart is establishing the kind of technology that provides governments and citizens with the comfort that these systems are foolproof. The key to successful implementation is the connection of the data pool of medical institutions, pharmaceutical companies, regulatory authorities across different jurisdictions, which will be very challenging. Already there have been hundreds of fake Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccination cards sold on eBay in the United States. Crucially, the critical question surrounds data protection, the centre of legislative debate and implementation.

Over the past year, Jamaica joined many countries in using contact tracking apps. However, the information in COVID-19 passports is somewhat different from and more limited than those apps. Even if a comprehensive legal framework is to be established in each jurisdiction, the next question will be how to coordinate and/or integrate different national laws to make COVID-19 passports interoperable globally. Limiting the type of information collected, stored or transferred may simplify the mutual recognition process.

Before the current pandemic, some countries had already been requiring foreign visitors to provide proof of vaccination status to obtain a visa. COVID-19 passports could be viewed as a similar concept, especially considering that the EU’s proposal provides that the Digital Green Certificate in paper form with a printed QR code could amount to a yellow vaccination card submitted for a visa application. Besides using COVID-19 passports for international travel, its use in domestic settings, such as for entering restaurants or the workplace, could create further legal issues, such as triggering discrimination laws.

We may also have to consider exceptions to the rule, such as how to accommodate people who cannot receive the vaccine due to various reasons. Bottom line, restoration of our tourism sector requires an urgent assessment and implementation of a set policy regarding how we manage visitors while ensuring the protection of the resident population. Technology is sure to be at the heart of the final systems devised.