China's first digital vaccine record for foreigner issued

This photo taken with a mobile phone shows a volunteer (R) helping Yemeni businessman Sufyan Marwan Sufyan Mohanmmed take vaccine reservation receipt for his daughter from a machine by scanning a QR code at a community health service center in Yiwu, east China's Zhejiang Province, March 25, 2025. (Xinhua/Huang Xiao)

BEIJING, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Sufyan Shomokh Marwan Sufyan, a 1-year-old Yemeni girl, has received a digital vaccine record in the city of Yiwu, east China's Zhejiang Province.

She is the first foreigner to enjoy such a service provided by China.

Provision of the digital vaccine record for foreigners was made possible thanks to the efforts of the centers for disease control and prevention at the provincial and city levels. By overcoming technical difficulties in adaptation between transnational programs, multi-language services, recognition of non-Chinese identifications, as well as obtaining such records, China has broadened service coverage of the digital vaccine records to include not only Chinese people.

"It's efficient and convenient to obtain the digital vaccine record, and it allows me to check it on my phone," said Sufyan Marwan Sufyan Mohanmmed, the father, adding that the service made vaccine reservation and school enrollment processes much simpler.

Considering the differences between vaccines in China and other countries, the nation has made adaptive adjustments to the vaccine record system, so as to collect information effectively and avoid problems in vaccinations that can occur when kids start school, including those lacking several vaccinations or having received repeated vaccinations, said Lou Xiaoming, deputy director of the Zhejiang Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention.