Covid Certification Service temporarily interrupted

Date published: 27 July 2021

The Northern Ireland COVID Certification Service – COVIDCert NI - has experienced a technical difficulty and availability will be temporarily interrupted.

The Department is aware that a limited number of users in limited circumstance may be presented with data relating to other users.

The Department of Health takes the privacy of citizen’s data very seriously and contact has been made with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as part of due diligence in protecting citizen’s data.  Immediate action has also been taken to temporarily remove a part of the service that manages identity. 

  • Applicants (currently up to and including 31/07) who already have their certificate will not be impacted by this – their apps or paper copies are still operational.
  • Applicants (to 31/07) who have lodged an application using the online portal for a downloadable PDF who have not yet received it will not be impacted by this – their PDF will be delivered.
  • Applicants (to 31/07) who have lodged an application using the COVIDCert NI app for an electronic certificate who have not yet received it will not be impacted by this – they will be sent a PDF as an interim step.
  • Applicants (to 31/07) who have lodged an application for an electronic certificate who receive a PDF copy instead will be able to log-in and download an electronic version after the issue is fixed.
  • Applicants who are currently undergoing identity validation in the NIDirect workflow can continue.  Once successfully validated they will need to pause while we fix the above issue.
  • Some users may find they cannot login through their NIDirect account, as they have been locked due to the technical issue.

The Department is endeavouring to resolve the issue and will provide a further update as soon as responsibly possible.

Information on the Covid Certification Scheme is available on NIDirect website.

Notes to editors: 

  1. For media enquiries please contact DoH Press Office by email: pressoffice@health-ni.gov.uk
  2. Follow us on twitter @healthdpt.
  3. The Executive Information Service operates an out of hours service for media enquiries only between 1800hrs and 0800hrs Monday to Friday and at weekends and public holidays. The duty press officer can be contacted on 028 9037 8110.

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