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Excelsior Pass
The Excelsior Pass is an American vaccine passport program in operation in the State of New York. It it officially described as a “secure, digital proof of COVID-19 vaccination or negative test results.”1)
It was developed in partnership with IBM, built on top of their IBM Digital Health Pass.2)
History
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo first announced the Excelsior Pass during his 2021 “State of the State” address on January 10, 2021.3)
On March 2, 2021, Cuomo announced the launch of a pilot program to test out the new passport program at Madison Square Garden and Barclays Center.4)
On August 5, 2021, Cuomo announced the introduction of the “Excelsior Pass Plus” which would expand the program into other states and internationally. 5) The expansion connected the Excelsior Pass to the SMART Health Card Framework developed by the Vaccine Credential Initiative (VCI), and VeriFLY by Daon.6)
New York City began enforcing its mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy for indoor businesses on September 13, 2021.7)
Functions
The Excelsior Pass initially offered three different types of pass:8)