With the success of New York's Excelsior Pass, which, to date, has generated 3 million digital passes, the Governor's Office has announced the launch of the Excelsior Pass Plus to further expand safe access for New Yorkers.  This 'first-in-the-nation' platform will be accepted globally at hundreds of businesses and locations that require vaccination proof, as well as for travel to locations where SMART Health Cards are being accepted.

Greater security measures is one of the main underlying factors of the Plus, with the idea that it will 'empower individuals with access to a free, trustworthy, privacy-preserving, and verifiable copy of their own vaccination records in paper or digital form, and supports the harmonization of standards needed for the issuance of verifiable health credentials worldwide - signed clinical data bound to an individual identity' - this according to the Governor's Office.  The Excelsior Pass Plus comes after development with a voluntary coalition of 570 public and private organizations called VCI, and uses two-factor authentication security to expand usage after the successful launch of the Excelsior Pass earlier this year.

In addition to access to businesses and locations that are requiring proof of vaccination for entry, one of the major benefits of the Excelsior Pass Plus is global travel.  Locations that accept SMART Health Cards, or are utilizing the SMART Health Cards Framework, will allow travelers to upload a verified copy of their vaccination information.  The Excelsior Pass Plus is also part of a first-in-the-nation partnership with VeriFLY by Daon, which, according to the press release from the Governor's Office, will allow for 'travel through American Airlines to Greece, France, Spain, Italy, and the Bahamas, and on indirect flights to El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, and Puerto Rico. The list will continue to grow as partnerships facilitating access to more countries are in development.'

Excelsior Pass Plus is only available to those who have received their vaccine in New York State, or, for New York State residents who have provided their vaccine information to their NYS healthcare provider.  This means that the provider has entered the information into the NYS and NYC immunization databases.  The Excelsior Pass Plus contains cryptographic signatures to prove to verifiers that it is a genuine credential issued by New York State and has not been tampered with or altered.  The pass will be accessible through the Excelsior Pass web portal, or the free NYS Wallet App, and the Excelsior Scanner app will be due for a mid-August update to accept all Excelsior Pass types, including the new Plus pass.

For information on how to set up the Excelsior Pass Plus, or how to access your pass through the wallet app, read more here.

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