QR codes are meant to ease the process of showing and confirming proof for both patrons and businesses
A new QR code system is available for Ontarians to utilize to show their proof of COVID-19 vaccination.
The paper receipts that previously had to be downloaded and shown to access non-essential businesses and organizations will still be valid and must be accepted, but downloading one’s QR code is meant to be an “easier, more secure and convenient” option to show your proof, according to the Ontario government.
A piece of identification with your full name and birth date, such as a driver’s license, also needs to be shown in conjunction with the proof.
To avoid potential system crashes or backlog, the QR code was initially offered for download last week to different groups of people on different days. Those born between January and April could get their codes on Oct. 15. People born between May and August could download theirs on Oct. 16, and those born between September and December were able to download on Oct. 17.
Beginning today, all Ontarians may download their code.
To get yours, visit the online provincial vaccine portal or call the Provincial Vaccine Contact Centre at 1-833-943-3900 to have it emailed or mailed to you.
Since Sept. 22, proof of full vaccination has been required to enter restaurants, bars and nightclubs, meeting and event spaces, facilities used for sports and recreational fitness activities and personal physical fitness training, casinos and other gaming establishments, concert venues, theatres and cinemas, bathhouses, sex clubs and strip clubs, horse and car racing tracks, and commercial film and TV productions with studio audiences.
Select outdoor facilities also require proof, such as those that have a normal capacity of 20,000 or more people, host track racing, or are affiliated with dance facilities, including nightclubs and restoclubs.
Individuals who are exempt from showing proof of vaccination include those aged 12 and under, those aged 18 and under who are entering an indoor premises to participate in an organized sport, those entering a business temporarily (such as to use a washroom or to place, pick up or pay for an order), those who can show a physician or nurse practitioner-approved medical exemption, and those who can show proof of participation in a COVID-19 clinical trial.
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