Case study

Validating Covid vaccination status to provide a means for the reopening of society and resumption of non-essential international travel.

Supporting the delivery of specialist and national services for over 5 million Scottish citizens, NHS National Services Scotland took to the front line in the nation’s fight against Covid-19. As lockdown measures were imposed to limit the spread of the virus and international travel was prohibited, the clear path to reclaim freedom was through the nationwide vaccine rollout. 

With a preliminary solution of paper vaccination certifications causing concerns, the decision to pivot to a digital solution would act as a crucial step in the right direction for the reopening of society and resumption of international travel. Demonstrating prowess in delivering highly comparable digital solutions for other nations across Northern Europe, Netcompany were onboarded as the trusted digital enabler to bring a robust and solid working solution to the Scottish people in quick succession.

Upon solidifying a hosting direction, Netcompany delivered and launched the international travel functionality of the Covid status app at the end of September 2020. Enabling citizens to prove their vaccination status through the provision of a unique 2D barcode, and encompassing fraud prevention gyroscopic elements, the solution instils confidence that displayed codes cannot be tampered with and therefore provides a true indication of vaccination status.

Recognised as a trusted method of verification by EU partner countries through the integration of gateway requirements – the app delivers on the promise, permitting non-essential overseas travel once more for Scottish citizens.

Following the launch of the international travel functionality, the uptake has soared with over 1.3 million citizens downloading the app to help fight the spread of the virus in domestic and overseas travel settings.

Results

• Providing a means for Scottish citizens to display their vaccination status to permit non-essential international travel to all 45 EU gateway participating countries
• Integrating gyroscopic elements including a live time synchronisation display to provide an extra level of validity to the certificate display
• Developed a roadmap for the future with crucial application developments in line with the inherently changing Covid landscape, including domestic use capabilities such as at large sporting arenas
• With knowledge gained from Netcompany’s delivery of the Danish, Norwegian and NHS X Covid Status apps, Netcompany leveraged Govtech component-based approach to accelerate development and expedite the subsequent solution launch