Digital COVID vaccine cards and driver’s licenses coming soon to MS, officials say
Soon you’ll be able to have your driver’s license, hunting license, fishing license and COVID vaccine card all in one place, Mississippi officials said at a Tuesday press conference.
Sean Tindell, commissioner of Mississippi Department of Public Safety, and Gov. Tate Reeves discussed the roll-out of a mobile identification system this November that will include the ability to use your driver’s license and COVID vaccine card from your smartphone.
Similar apps are already being used in states such as Louisiana, where residents can upload their driver’s license and vaccine card into an app called LA Wallet. Residents also can renew their license in the app.
Mississippi hopes to replicate that idea, and according to Tindell, and his department has been working with the State Department of Health to be able to include vaccination cards. Tindell said he hopes all the state agencies will be able to have a hand in the mobile ID program.
State Rep. Charles Busby, R-Pascagoula, author of House Bill 1371, told WLBT in May that the mobile ID would not be available until the second or third quarter of 2022.
In order to move that timeline up to November, the roll-out at first will only include drivers licenses and COVID cards, Tindell said.
He hopes to expand the services to include other licenses sometime in the spring.
Tindell also said that, using the mobile ID, law enforcement will not need to ask for a physical ID and will be able to interact with the app as they are approaching a vehicle through Bluetooth.
“They [law enforcement] will know exactly who they’re dealing with before they even get to the car,” Tindell said.
Tindell is also working with the Department of Revenue to make sure businesses that are required to check IDs, such as those that sell alcohol, will accept the mobile ID as identification.
The mobile ID is one of other improvements to state licensing programs such as the “Skip the Line” program which allows people to make appointments at Drivers Service Bureaus following the passage of House Bill 1371 that allows Mississippi to make improvements to licensing.
The program also will allow Mississippians to meet the federal government’s new standards for a REAL ID, which has stricter documentation requirements, enacted after 9/11 and now delayed by the pandemic.
This story was originally published October 12, 2021 at 4:26 PM.
