With a handful of cities and many private companies they now require vaccination tests to admit patterns, you may need to present your COVID-19 vaccine card to someone at some point. Unfortunately, these cards are too large for most wallet and pants pockets, and are likely to be lost or damaged in random play; this is why you might want to keep a digital copy on your smartphone.
What are your options for easily (securely) storing your vaccine record digitally?
Take a picture of it
The easiest option is to take a photo of the vaccination card and keep it in the photo library. It’s likely to be visible by default in your library or photo stream, so if you want more privacy, you’ll need to take a few extra steps to hide it.
On iOS, tap the share icon below the photo and select Hide> Hide photo from the pop-up menu to put the image in the hidden folder. This album can be found in the section Album tab> Utilities> Hide. You can also go one step further and hide your hidden album using Settings> Photos. Disable Hidden Album: Just turn it back on if you want to see your photos later.
If you have a Samsung, you can create a secure folder for your photos this is unlocked with biometrics. Enable this option on your phone Settings> Biometrics and security> Secure folder. Then select the photo from the vaccine log, tap the More icon, and choose Move to secure folder.
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You can also archive images that you don’t want to access often to Google Photos. Simply select the photo and tap More> Move to File. You can find them later in the section Library> Archive.
Use a password manager or a note-taking application
Most password managers have secure document storage, so if you use one of these services, you can keep vaccination logs behind a secure login and access any of your devices. Other notes i document scanning applications—Adobe Scan and Evernote, for example, can be good alternatives, as you must at least log in to access saved images.
On iOS, you can even use Notes to password protect individual scanned items. Open a new note and select Camera> Scan documents and scan the vaccine card. After saving the scan, click the three horizontal dots and tap the lock button to set a password or enable biometrics.
Download the digital documents application for your state
Several states support specific health record applications that residents can use to store and access their digital vaccine cards: New Jersey and Utah use Expedient, while New York does Excelsior Pass. Others have enabled storage in general digital document applications: LA Wallet in Louisiana, for example, now supports COVID-19 cards. California residents can sign up receive a link to your digital vaccine record, which can be stored on Google Pay or saved as a screenshot and saved as a photo.
There are also apps like VaxSí which are not limited to specific states. And Samsung Galaxy users can be downloaded CommonHealth to store vaccine records and add the card to Samsung Pay, while general Android users can choose to keep their vaccine cards in Google Pay.