NYC Covid Safe, one of the apps you can use to show you’ve gotten the vax.
By Carol Tannenhauser
“Checking your proof” will take on added meaning in September in New York City, which recently became the first U.S. city to require people to show proof of at least one COVID-19 vaccination to gain indoor access to restaurants, bars, gyms, movie theaters, and other entertainment venues. The program will be launched on August 16th, but there is some lead time; enforcement won’t begin until September 13th. Then, to paraphrase Mel Brooks, it will be good to be vaccinated in New York City! But you’ve got to be able to prove it. Here are four ways to do so, tweeted by newly elected Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine.
With the big news that NYC will be requiring proof of vaccination for indoor dining and gyms, you might be asking: what vax proof will be accepted??
There are four options:
* Excelsior Pass
* NYC COVID Safe App
* CDC Vax Card
* NYC Vax RecordA 🧵on how these work…
— Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) August 4, 2021
Presumably, if you got vaccinated, you got a CDC Vax Card, made of paper, which you put in a safe place (not your wallet, because it’s slightly too big). As you look at the other three methods of proof, all involving the internet, remember there will inevitably be glitches, as there were when we were all searching desperately for vax appointments. You’ve always got your card — hopefully. If lost, it cannot be replaced right now, according to the NYC Health Department. Here is a link directing you to a second way of obtaining proof of vaccination: accessing and printing a copy of your NYC Vax Record, available by clicking on My Vaccine Record.
Now, for the apps. The New York State Excelsior Pass provides “a free, fast and secure way to present digital proof of COVID-19 vaccination” on your phone, according to the state. “Simply click on the state’s Excelsior link, answer a few questions, and pass retrieved!” (Yeah, right. Two days later, this reporter is still waiting!) Levine explained that “even a minor inconsistency in your name, birthdate, etc. in the database will block you.” If you have a problem retrieving the Excelsior Pass, call your provider. As with the rollout of every new coronavirus-related initiative, it will take awhile to work out the kinks in this one. And apparently it’s not currently available to people who got vaccinated in other states.
“A simpler option,” according to Levine, “is the new NYC Covid Safe App (available on iphone and android app stores). It simply stores a picture of your vax card. It doesn’t communicate w/ any outside databases. This will allay some people’s privacy fears — especially for, say, undocumented immigrants.” To get the NYC Covid Safe App and an overview of the new vaccination mandate program, click here.
I don’t have a smartphone (shock! surprise!)so I tried your “My Vaccine Record” link… I filled it out, using my email address and got this:
“Please enter the code you were just sent:”
So I put in the code they’d just sent and got this:
“* Your code cannot be verified. Please check your entries and try again.”
So much for the link. If I can’t be verified does that indicate I no longer have to pay taxes or serve on juries? (Looking for an upside here)
I can’t just go back to Duane Reade or Walgreens or whatever they’re calling themselves these days and ask them to slip me a copy of said vacc record, the product of 200 phone calls and much sweating?
Jeez, earlier, numerous articles assured me I could…
It figures.
Okay, it finally worked… third time’s the charm… or maybe 5th but who’s counting?
The info comes, not in a simple card format, but a multi-page document, starting with Influenza shots, followed by Rotavirus, DTP, Hib, Pediatric Pneumococcal (PCV & PPSV), Polio, MMR, Varicella… after that I fell asleep…
When I awoke there was HepA, Meningococcal (MenACWY) Human Papillomavirus…
Page two… Adult Pneumococcal (PCV & PPSV) then blah blah blah and THEN, yes, right at the very bottom: Covid19!
Pilgrim, your search is over!
My heartiest congratulations! Some day I’ll tell you how I got the shot.
I searched the Android Play Store on my phone, but a NYC Covid Safe App did not appear in the search box. There is a COVID Alert NY from the NYS Department of Health. Is that the same as the COVID Safe App?
Thanks
It’s not the same thing. It’s listed in apps under “NYC Covid Safe.” I already had a photo of my vax card on the phone, so the whole process literally took less than a minute. Thank you WSR for posting the details! 🙂
I’m very frustrated with this proof of vaccination process. I was vaccinated at an NYC Health site in Harlem back in April 2021. I tried to get the ‘Excelsior Pass’ many times without success. (The website suggested that I call the NYC Dept of Health and urge them to enter the information correctly?) I have the card and took a pic of it. I hope it gets me in to Gram Tav.
I just took a photo of my CDC card and it has been accepted as proof so far.
Just to stir the pot: voting occurs indoors. Should people have to show proof of vaccination to vote? I’d like to see NYC politicians talk themselves into pretzels answering this.
I’m sure that if you look at all the social media accounts of the Comrades here on the Peoples Republic of the Upper Westside who are SIMPLY DELIGHTED that at these intrusive and tyrannical mandates you will find that each and every one of them is SIMPLY APPALLED at the idea of Voter ID.
TO. A. Person.
Marry me.
“the new NYC Covid Safe App (available on iphone and android app stores). It simply stores a picture of your vax card. It doesn’t communicate w/ any outside databases. This will allay some people’s privacy fears — especially for, say, undocumented immigrants”
The dumbest thing I’ve heard today.
Taking a photo or scanning the card and storing it on your phone does exactly the same thing.
Any app by definition asks for some information and some access to your phone’s features . Taking your own picture does none of those things.
Both are equally faked, too
So what do New Yorkers who were vaccinated outside of the country and are returning soon do?
There is a great alternative which is part digitized and part photo of the CDC vaxx card but it has to be submitted to the company. It’s called #ImmunaBand. It’s not free, they start at $19.99 (max $24.99) for a wrist band with a stainless steel tag that has your QR-code (& your name if you choose). Like Excelsior the code is scanned by authorities which takes them to a password secured site that gives them your name, birthdate, vaccine & manufacturer and the last date of vaccine. Below that is a pic of your CDC Card. Nothing to lose, you wear it on your wrist. I love mine
Just like in the movie Contagion.
LOL
we’re really living in end times
I will not use the NYC pass but will stick with the Excelsior pass.
Anyone can fake the vaccine card and upload it as proof of vaccination. I can’t believe NYC will accept this method.
The Excelsior pass examines the records of the vaccination held by the state to find proof of vaccination.
Excelsior doesn’t work for me and I haven’t been able to track down why…presumably, some of my information got mistyped along the way.
And if you continue to have difficulty uploading a picture of your vaccination card, feel free to upload a picture of your cat instead. That works equally well at proving that you have been vaccinated, according to NYC’s app: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/04/nyregion/nyc-vaccine-pass-answers.html
An uploaded picture of Mickey Mouse also reportedly works just as well.
The New York City bureaucracy strikes again!
I too have been unable to get an Excelsior Pass because my vax site (Sloan Kettering) didn’t properly register or record my shots. I have a photo of my CDC cards (I got one for each shot!) on my phone and I hope that will work as proof when I enter NYC venues this fall.
Isn’t Covid now a “forever” problem? If unvaccinated are dangerous now, won’t they always be dangerous? If so, these aren’t temporary restrictions and temporary I.D. plans. Troubling implications for our collective social lives in future.
This article was so informative. Thanks so much. Btw. I got the excelsior pass in less than a minute.
Cool – cool. Show proof of vaccination to eat in a restaurant, take in a show. Does anyone else find the irony of the left’s obsession with proving vaccination with gov’t sponsored ID’s to be an active member of society v their stance on voter ID laws to be ridiculous? How is one totally fine and the other racist?