Ducey bans ‘vaccine passport’ use by Arizona governments

Posted Apr 19, 2021

Jeremy Duda
Arizona Mirror

Marco Verch | Flickr/CC BY 2.0

Gov. Doug Ducey on Monday banned state and local governments from requiring a “vaccine passport” to receive service or enter an area.

Ducey’s executive order also applies to any business that has a government contract, and bars them from requiring any customer to provide information on their vaccination status to receive any government services they provide.

The executive order does allow for hospitals, nursing homes and other health care facilities to ask about documentation of a visitor’s, patient’s, employee’s or resident’s vaccination status. Universities, child care centers, home schools and other schools are also exempt.

The executive order does not apply to private businesses.

“The residents of our state should not be required by the government to share their private medical information,” said Ducey in a press release about the executive order. “While we strongly recommend all Arizonans get the COVID-19 vaccine, it’s not mandated in our state — and it never will be. Vaccination is up to each individual, not the government.”

Two weeks ago, Arizona Department of Health Services Director Dr. Cara Christ expressed her uncertainty about vaccine passports saying she was fine with people knowing her status but knows others want to keep that information private.

Many countries have been making travelers already need coronavirus tests prior to travel and recently Israel began issuing a digital Green Pass to people who have been vaccinated. The pass is required to enter hotels and theaters.

New York state is the first in the United States to issue something similar with their Excelsior Pass which some places have begun to use to show proof of vaccination.

Approximately 1.9 million Arizonans have been fully vaccinated against the virus.

As of April 19, there have been 854,453 cases of COVID-19 and 17,153 deaths with 692 new cases reported Monday.

This report was first published by the Arizona Mirror.