The Virginia Department of Health announced Thursday that people vaccinated against Covid in Virginia can obtain a personalized QR code to be used in place of paper vaccine cards.
Vaccinated individuals can go to Virginia’s vaccine portal to obtain their code, which can be saved to a photo gallery or as a digital file on a phone. If an office or school requires proof of vaccination, the code can be sent to administrators via email.
However, it’s not as if you can toss your paper vaccination card, since not all businesses will be able to verify the QR codes. Establishments must download the free SMART Health verifier app to confirm the legitimacy of each code. While paper vaccine cards can (and have been) falsified, each QR code contains a digital signature from the Virginia Department of Health to prevent counterfeit versions.
Daniella Byck joined Washingtonian in 2022. She was previously with Outside Magazine and lives in Northeast DC.
