Where to save your COVID vaccination certificate for easy access

In a Zoom with friends recently, discussion turned to COVID Vaccinations and what to do with the certificate that you receive once you are fully vaccinated.

The COVID-19 digital certificate is available from the Medicare Express Plus app here in Australia. If you haven't already done so, this app is well worth downloading to any mobile device.  Not only does it show your COVID certificate (and other vaccinations), but it also allows you to submit Medicare claims.

Alternatively, you can access the certificate via your web browser - by signing in to your myGov account and then accessing your Medicare service from there.

​(We won't go into how to set up myGov and link Medicare in this article - but let us know in the comments if this is something you would like to see covered in a future article.)

So once you find your COVID certificate, what can you do with it, and how can you have it readily available when you need it. There are a few options.

You can download the PDF version of the certificate and store it somewhere on your mobile device or computer.

Ideally you will want to have it available on your mobile device, just in case you need to present it in future when we are finally allowed out of lockdown.

My place for storing things like that is Evernote, where I have a Notebook for Health notes and documents. Another place you could store it - if you are on an iPad/iPhone/Mac - is in your Notes. 

But you don't actually have to save the PDF version of the certificate. 

You can access the certificate via the Medicare Express Plus app when you are on the go. And you can ensure that you have access to it even if you are not connected to the internet, or not currently signed in to the app. This makes it much quicker to get to.

When viewing the certificate, the app allows you to choose to Save offline for quick access in future. It is then available via an Offline Items​ option that you see at the bottom of the initial screen when you open the Medicare Express Plus app.

If you are on an iPhone, the Add to Apple Wallet option is also available for your digital COVID certificate.

For those of you wanting to learn more about the options for accessing saving your digital COVID certificate, here is a good article published this week:

• How do you get your COVID-19 vaccine certificate on your phone? It's surprisingly simple.