As borders are opening worldwide, being vaccinated and having a vaccination card or certificate is one of the most essential requirements for travellers. Here are the commonly asked questions about vaccination certificates.

A vaccination certificate is a significant travel document that needs to be carried together with your passport, other cards and documents.

To prevent the spread of COVID-19 from worsening and impacting more people, countries around the world have mobilised to vaccinate their citizens against the virus with the vaccine provided by the many pharmaceutical companies around the world.

Upon getting the shots, a special certificate will be issued as evidence that you are protected against COVID-19 and are now possessing a reduced risk of being infected and infecting others. This is important as the virus can easily spread due to its airborne nature.

As such, having this proof will provide assurance to authorities that you are good to travel or enter their country.

To be able to travel abroad these days, proof of vaccination is now mandated and must be always presented, or travellers may risk being barred entry.

Typically, Malaysians getting vaccination jabs will be issued a digital certificate in their respective MySejahtera applications.

This alone is enough to use to travel domestically as well as proof of vaccination in some countries, including the United States.

However, other countries may require downloading additional apps on the respective mobile phones and completing the necessary information as well as submitting proof in the respective apps.

For instance, the countries in the European Union (EU) have their own EU COVID Digital Certificate that is completely separate and is required in order to freely travel within the EU countries.

Different countries may have different regulations, therefore check with countries of interest that you comply with their vaccine certification regulations.

To obtain the vaccination certificate, one must complete the necessary amount of jabs.

This may differ from one vaccine provider to another. Pfizer and AstraZeneca need two doses to be considered as completion, whereas Johnson & Johnson only needs one dose.

The dosage is different as well for people below 11 years old, with a smaller dosage advised in comparison to adults and a booster shot to accompany it when they reach 12 years old.

Yet with the spread of Delta and Omicron variants that are much more contagious, coupled with the prospect of more variants incoming, booster shots have been made mandatory in Malaysia.

This is especially true for populations above 60 years old as well as anyone above 18 years old that has taken the Sinovac jab.

Depending on the progress of the pandemic, the booster mandate will be revised from time to time, impacting the vaccine certificate qualification, as one needs to complete them to qualify for the certificate.

During the early days of the vaccination drive, the Malaysian government approved the vaccines provided by Pfizer-BioNTech, Sinovac and AstraZeneca. In fact, these three providers have been working diligently to provide supplies to the government to drive up the vaccination rates among the citizens.

With the efforts to boost vaccination and to open up to travellers, five more providers are now approved, including Sinopharm, CanSino, Bharat Biotech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.

This means now these vaccines can be used in Malaysia, and upon dosage completion, will be eligible for issuance of vaccination certificate.

Nonetheless, so far only Pfizer-BioNTech is approved for use among children.

Generally, there are three ways to prove that you are vaccinated and good to go when travelling. First is the COVID-19 vaccine digital certificate that can be added to a digital wallet.

Secondly is the immunisation history with complete details of the jabs taken including booster shots if there are any.

Last but not least, the international vaccination certificate that will be acknowledged across different countries will be useful when you need to travel overseas.