Recently, I wrote about Ontario’s QR code system and how it worked. Along with a walkthrough of how users of iOS 15.1 or later could add their Ontario COVID-19 vaccination record QR code to Apple Wallet. Since I wrote that article Ontario has made QR codes mandatory starting on January 4th. On top of that, booster doses are being rolled out to more and more people. As a result you’ll need to ensure that your QR code on your person. Ideally on your phone. And you need to make sure that you get the record of your booster dose on your phone. The good news is this is easy to do after you get your booster dose:
NOTE: This requires iOS 15.1 or later on your iPhone.
You can get your QR code from this website as long as you have your green health card handy to get your “enhanced vaccine certificate” in the form of a PDF which contains the QR code that you need. Also, I should mention that you should get an email that will have a time limited link that will allow you to do the same thing after you get your booster dose. Either way, from the portal, tap the PDF and a blue “Open in” link will appear. Click to open a menu that will allow you to email or download the PDF to your device. I stored the PDF in iCloud Drive so that I have it handy if I need to on all my Apple devices, as well as being backed up to the cloud. After that, here’s what you need to do:
- Open the Camera app from the Home Screen, Control Center, or Lock Screen on your iPhone.
- Select the rear-facing camera.
- Hold your device so that the QR code appears in the viewfinder in the Camera app. Your device recognizes the QR code and shows a Health app notification.
- Tap the Health app notification.
- For verifiable vaccination records, tap Add to Wallet & Health to add the record to the Health app and Wallet app.
- Tap Done.
At this point, you will have two cards in your wallet. One that shows two doses and one with three doses. I deleted the one with two doses by doing the following:
- Pick the pass that you want to delete. Which would be the one with two doses.
- Click on the three dots with a circle around them on the top right corner of the screen. It looks like this:
It should then take you to a screen which will have the words “Remove Pass” a third of the way down the screen. Click on that.
I am mentioning this because I have a feeling that the Government Of Ontario is going to redefine what “fully vaccinated” means. Currently it’s two doses. But I think at some point it will go up to three. Which means that it is in your interest to make sure that you have the right version of the QR code on your iPhone or Apple Watch.
I would be interested in hearing your experience in downloading your QR code and using it. Was it easy to download? Did you have any issue using it at a venue? Leave a comment and share your experience.