COVID-19 Passports Prohibited In Georgia Government: Gov. Kemp

GEORGIA — Gov. Brian Kemp issued an executive order on Tuesday prohibiting state agencies, state service providers and state properties from requiring COVID-19 vaccine passports.

The executive order also outlines that "no vaccine passport shall be required for entry into the State of Georgia. State employers shall not have different rules for employees based on vaccination status, unless such rules are implemented using an honor-code system and no proof of vaccination is required."

The order states that Georgia Registry of Immunization Transactions and Services (GRITS) data held by the state cannot be used for the purposes of a vaccine passport program, and GRITS data will not be shared with any public or private entity for the purposes of a vaccine passport program.

"Today's executive order makes clear that vaccine passports will not be utilized in state government," Kemp said. "While I continue to urge all Georgians to get vaccinated, so we continue our momentum in putting the COVID-19 pandemic in the rearview, vaccination is a personal decision between each citizen and a medical professional - not state government. This order also clearly states that data held by the Georgia Department of Public Health and their immunization system will not be used by any public or private entity for a vaccine passport program."

Read the full executive order online.

An overwhelming majority of Georgia Patch readers who responded to our survey in April are against the idea of a statewide vaccine passport — a kind of digital credential that would show a person's vaccination status or recent negative COVID-19 test result as a way for them to possibly attend sporting events or enter businesses.

As more and more people are vaccinated against COVID-19, the idea of a vaccine passport has been in the public discourse, and states are taking steps to either explore the idea or reject it altogether.

Patch received more than 2,500 responses to our survey, with more than 62 percent of respondents saying they opposed the idea of a vaccine passport. More than 78 percent of those respondents said they had data privacy concerns around the use of such a credential. When asked about the specific types of concerns they had, readers said they should be able to keep medical information private.

Editor's note: The survey was not a scientific poll with random sampling and weighting by race, education or other factors, and should be viewed only as a broad gauge of public sentiment.

Read more: Vaccine Passports In Georgia? Most Patch Readers Say No