How to add your COVID pass to Apple Wallet on your iPhone

Apple and (RED) are fighting two pandemics: AIDS/HIV and COVID-19

One important update to iOS 15.1 is the addition of an option that lets iPhone users add their COVID vaccination cards to their Apple Wallet. Many nations now support this feature, including the UK and US.

Toward the vaccine passport

This supplements previously added tools that let you store vaccine and test result records within the Health app, and means you can now turn your wallet into a COVID pass. Where this is recognized (and that’s not everywhere yet), that means you can pull out your iPhone and show your pass from inside your wallet.

There are three ways to add your vaccine card to your wallet:

• Use a QR code
• From within the Health app
• Download a record

Part of the process may look like this

Using a QR code

If you have a QR code for your COVID vaccination card follow these steps:

• Launch the Camera app on your iPhone
• Scan the QR code
• Tap the Health notification that appears
• Add the vaccine card to your Wallet.

Adding from within the Health app

A small number of us may be working with health authorities who might have already mae the vaccine cards available via Apple’s Health app. If that’s you just follow this step to add your card to your Wallet:

• Open the Health app
• Open the vaccine card
• Look and you should find the option to add it to Wallet, which usually requires one tap.

Download a record

You can also download a verifiable health record from your provider and add that to your Health and Wallet apps. This varies by provider. In the UK you need to download the main NHS app, though you can also request proof of vaccination and testing status via the NHS website, though this takes longer. The COVID Pass won’t be available until at least two weeks after your second vaccine.

Add using a health authority app

In the UK you use the NHS app, in which you tap Get Your NHS COVID Pass and then choose ‘Add to Wallet’.

How to access the COVID Pass

Once you have added the pass to your Wallet you can access it by opening Wallet and selecting the card.

Please stay safe for yourself and others. In the UK (the nation in which I am currently trapped) at the present time, around 1,000 people are dying because of the disease each week. The UK’s Covid infection rate is one of the worst in the world.

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