The Glen Waverley Uniting Church PSALTERLink to GomerInfo > OpeningAfterCoronaVirus
How to get a Covid Vaccination Certificate
- These instructions are for Apple phones, as that is all that I can access. Others should be similar.
- Your experiences and suggestions are very welcome.
If you already have the Medicare app on your phone, skip directly to Step 4. You may have used this app to submit Medicare claims.
If you do not have the Medicare app on your phone but do have a Medicare account linked to MyGov, start at Step 3.
If you have a MyGov account but do not have your Medicare account linked to myGov, start at Step 2. You are likely to have used MyGov for your tax return or to access Centrelink
If you do not have a myGov account, start from Step 1.
1. If you do not have a MyGov account
2. If you do not have a Medicare account linked to your MyGov account
You may have used MyGov for tax returns or Centrelink access.
Log in to MyGov. This will require some security process, depending on how your MyGov account is set up. Commonly a security code sent by SMS to your phone, but can be security questions.
- If Medicare is not listed under "Your Services", click on "Link another Service" and add Medicare.
- The website will take you through a list of questions to prove that is indeed your medicare account, asking for details from your medicare card and the date and names of the most recent GP and/or specialist you have seen.
- If you do not succeed in answering these questions online, you can call the phone helpline to verify your identity (this may require some time sitting on hold).
2.1. AJH 04 Oct 2021
You need to be aware that there are two different things: MyGov and MyGovID. They are different! Unfortunately, the government itself does not seem to know the difference, and the messages that you get seem to conflate the two. When I attempt to create a MyGovID, it asks for my MyGov account details, which I enter (*). It then sends the SMS code, which I enter. I am then connected to a MyGov page, which offers the option of connecting to the MyGovID. This says that to connect you need to do 3 things: 1. Select your identity provider. 2. Consent to share your details. 3. Digital Identity is connected.
- So I 'continue'. Redirection. step 1: you need two things: iOS device; two identity documents. Then select "Select myGovID". Redirection. Get the myGovID app. This I have done. So "Already have the myGovID app? Login with your myGovID email to continue." Yep. type in myGovID email. "Email not recognised" !!!!!! I do have a myGov email, and I have already logged in with it at step (*) above.
$$%%$&*&^%$ and other expletives. Words fail me!!
- update. Ignore myGovID. I'm told by the help line that it is not needed. But I still don't understand why I was told to get a myGovID.
- further update. Following the instructions for linking my Medicare service, I was told my "details don't match the details on record". So I am still unable to do anything. I am now on hold to Medicare ............
- after 45 minutes, I spoke to a very helpful man called John (of course!), who took me through passport numbers, licence numbers, phone numbers, dates of birth (me and my wife), etc., etc., you don't want to know! The upshot was that they could only link my account if I could produce a birth certificate, which I don't have. I have an extract which is not good enough, and anyway, we could not find it. The final upshot of this whole sorry saga is ... (drum roll) ... Angas John Hurst is a different person to John Hurst. dah dum! So I am giving up.
- PS. Jon was not only very helpful, but also very sympathetic. His name has no 'h', and he said that he has had the same sort of experiences! All of which leads me to say, I hate bureaucracy, and I hate computers! (or rather, I hate incompetent computer programmers.)
- caveat: it is now after 2pm, and I have been working on this since I left GOMERS this morning at 11:15. Advice to others: give up now.
3. To install the "Medicare Express Plus" app on your phone
- Download "Medicare Express Plus" from the app store. Search shows "medicare express". Download screen has "Express Plus...:
- Install the app.
- The app will ask you the sign in with your myGov account (email and password) in the same way you do on your computer.
- It will then send you an SMS with a code in it, and ask you to copy this into the app. The easiest way to do this on an iPhone is right after you receive the message, touch inside the box where you need to insert the code, then look just above the number keypad, where it should say "From Messages" and will have the number already copied and ready to go - then you just need to click on this "From messages" and it will put the code into the box.
- The app will then ask you to set a 4 digit PIN, which you can use to sign in to the app in the future (the app will remember your name, but ask for the PIN each time, for security).
4. When you have the "Medicare Express Plus" app on your phone
- Open the Medicare app.
- Sign in using your 4 digit PIN.
- Scroll down to "Immunisation history" and select it.
- Scroll down to the green "View COVID-19 digital certificate" button and tap it.
- Scroll down to "Add to Apple Wallet" on Apple or "Save to phone" for Google Pay.
- You can then tap on it in Wallet to display whenever needed. The latest word from Services Victoria is "We are currently working on a feature that will allow fully vaccinated people to add their proof-of-vaccination status in their Service Victoria App."