Technologies

Some states have an app for your COVID-19 vaccine card. Here’s what else we found

Soon, Apple Wallet will have a way to store your vaccination card, too.

For the most up-to-date news and information about the coronavirus pandemic, visit the WHO and CDC websites.

The news about vaccine mandates is everchanging. California school-aged children may be required to get the COVID-19 vaccine (when the vaccines for kids get full FDA approval). And employers, like Google and Uber, are requiring their employers, too. But given President Biden’s vaccine mandates, federal workers, employers with at least 100 employers and others will be required to get the vaccine, too.

But that doesn’t mean that you need to keep your printed version in your wallet all the time.Storing your vaccination card on your phone is the best way to keep proof handy without running the risk of losing or damaging your card. Android and iOS have ways to store your vaccination card on your phone and a few states have apps to store it, too. And just a clear picture of your card will work, too.

We’ll show you how to store your vaccine card on your phone and tell you which states have apps to keep it handy. Here’s the latest on the future booster shots and the latest on Pfizer’s vaccine for kids. This story was recently updated.

Which states have vaccination card apps?

Many states have apps that let their residents store vaccine cards on their phones. A few include California, Colorado, Hawaii, New York and Oregon but that’s not all.

Colorado residents can download the myColorado app requires you to create an account, verify your identity and then add your digital driver’s license to your phone. After you’ve done that, you can then add your myVaccine record to the app.

Louisiana’s LA Wallet app takes a similar approach to Colorado’s, allowing you to add your driver’s license and proof of vaccination to your phone.

California’s implementation requires you to fill out a form to verify your identity, after which you’ll receive a text message or email with a link to a QR code you can save to your phone. When scanned, the code will offer proof of vaccination. The link will also include a digital copy of your vaccination record.

Illinois residents can use VaxVerify to show proof. The app uses Experian for identity verification.

MyIR Mobile is another app used by several state health departments to provide a digital copy of your vaccination card. Currently, if you live in Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Dakota, Washington, West Virginia or Washington, DC, this is the app you’ll use.

Delaware, New Mexico and Michigan are also using web portals for residents to access their vaccination status online.

New Yorkers have two app options, including the Excelsior Pass app and NYC Covid Safe.

We’ll continue to keep an eye out for other states that have apps and features to store your COVID-19 vaccine card online.

Are there other ways to store your vaccination card on your phone?

If your state doesn’t have an app to store your card, there are other ways to store it on your phone. The US doesn’t have a single online system or app you can use to show proof of vaccination on your phone. Instead, what qualifies as proof varies by city, county and even business.

Some places may accept a picture of your vaccination card.It’s a confusing mess, to put it mildly. I strongly urge you to take a few minutes to research what your city, county or state will accept as proof, as it can vary.

For example, concert producer AEG Presents will accept a «physical copy of a COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card, a digital copy of such card or such other proof as is permitted locally.»

Along with school mandates, hundreds of colleges are also requiring students and employees to be vaccinated. Seattle University, for example, requires students to be vaccinated to attend in-person classes via an online form that uploads photos of the front and back of the vaccination card.

When in doubt, look for information on the business’s website, or call the local health department and ask for clarification. This is bound to save you time, headaches and being turned away at the door.

Can you use Google Pay or Apple Wallet to store your card?

If you have an iPhone ($388 at Amazon), with an update coming soon for iOS 15 you’ll be able to add your vaccine card to your Apple Wallet to present whenever you need to show you’re fully vaccinated. (You can keep a copy in the Health app right now.)

Over on Android, you can add your vaccine card to the Google Pay app. I need to remind myself each time where my card is in Google Pay, so I added a shortcut icon to my home screen to quickly find it.

Samsung Pay can also store it

Samsung now gives Galaxy phone owners the option to add proof of vaccination to Samsung Pay,its wallet app. By having direct access to your vaccination record, youwon’t have to fiddle around with creating photo albums and tappingthrough multiple screens before you’re able to show it to a bouncer atyour local watering hole.

To add your card to Samsung Pay, you’ll need to download the CommonHealth app(Samsung’s partner) from the Google Play Store. Follow the prompts inthe app to verify your vaccination status. Once the app confirms you’veindeed gotten the shots, you’ll be prompted to download a Smart HealthCard to Samsung Pay.

That card is what you’ll then show to anyone requesting you show proof of vaccination.

Will a picture of your vaccine card work?

Is that too much fuss? The simplest way to have a digital record of your vaccine status is to snap a picture of your vaccination card and keep it on your phone. The CDC even recommends keeping a picture of your card as a backup copy.

Simply use the camera app on your phone to snap the photo. You can favorite the photo to quickly locate it or store it in a notes app, a folder or somewhere that’s easy to remember so you don’t have to endlessly scroll your camera roll to find it. Make sure you’re in a well-lit area and get close enough to the card that its dates and details are legible. I also suggest putting the card on a dark surface, while remaining conscious of shadows of your arms or the phone on the card itself.

Here’s an example of one way to save your vaccination card as a new photo album. On an iPhone, open the Photos app, select the Albums tab and then tap the + sign in the top left corner followed by New Album. Give the album a name and then tap Save. Next, select the photos of your card to add it to the album.

On an Android phone, it depends on which app you’re using, but the process should generally be the same. If you’re using the Google Photos app, open the app and then select the picture of your vaccination card. Tap the three-dot menu button in the top-right corner, followed by the Add to Album button. Select +New album and give it a name such as «Vaccination Card» and tap the checkmark button when you’re done.

Other ways to store your vaccination card on your phone

I’ve had a large number of readers reach out to me about this article, each one offering advice and guidance about storing a proof of vaccination card.

Some suggestions include well-known airport security service Clear. In fact, some concert and exhibition halls require attendees use Clear to verify their vaccination status to attend a show. You can go to clearme.com/healthpass to download the app and get your card added.

VaxYes is another service that verifies your vaccination status and then adds your vaccination card to Apple Wallet. I’ve read that you can add your card to the Google Pay app, but after signing up and going through the process myself, I don’t see the option on a Pixel 5 running Android 12.

If your local municipality or employer used the CDC’s Vaccine Administration Management System, then you can use the VAMS website to access your vaccination records. I had more than one reader reach out to me about using this system to show proof of vaccination, but without an account myself, I’m unable to go through the process of accessing a vaccination record.

Another suggestion I received from multiple readers is to use a scanner app on your phone and store a scanned copy of your vaccination card in something like your OneDrive personal vault or a password manager (almost all of them offer some sort of secure file storage) instead of storing the photo in Google Photos or Apple’s iCloud photos. On an iPhone, you can use the scanner that’s built into the Notes app. On Android, Google’s Stack PDF scanner will be enough to get the job done.

This story updates as the national vaccine conversation continues. For more information about the forthcoming booster shots from Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, make sure to read this. We have up-to-date details about the delta variant, as well as delta plus and the lambda variant.

The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.

Technologies

Cloudflare Says Winter Olympics Cybersecurity Is at Risk in Spat With Italian Regulators

But Cloudflare’s global head of policy tells CNET the company is open to an agreement with Italy.

The CEO of the networking company Cloudflare is lashing out at Italy in response to regulatory anti-piracy fines, threatening to withdraw from the country and potentially the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

Italy announced on Jan. 8 that it had issued a fine of 14.2 million euros (approximately $16.5 million) against Cloudflare for failing to block access to pirated content. Soon after that, Cloudflare’s CEO Matthew Prince took to X to call out the fines, describing Cloudflare’s decision not to comply as a fight over censorship. Prince said that complying with Italy’s demands under its Piracy Shield policies would affect content globally.

Italy’s Piracy Shield is a program implemented by the country’s telecommunications regulator, AGCOM. In order to cut down on piracy in the country, such as hosting illegal streams of sporting events, the program allows IP holders to report content violations to a rapid-response automated system. However, some have complained that the 30-minute window given is not enough time for ISPs to properly vet complains, and is resulting in legitimate, non-pirated content being blocked as well.

«In other words, Italy insists a shadowy, European media cabal should be able to dictate what is and is not allowed online,» Prince said.

Yesterday a quasi-judicial body in Italy fined @Cloudflare $17 million for failing to go along with their scheme to censor the Internet. The scheme, which even the EU has called concerning, required us within a mere 30 minutes of notification to fully censor from the Internet any… pic.twitter.com/qZf9UKEAY5

— Matthew Prince 🌥 (@eastdakota) January 9, 2026

In his posts, Prince specifically mentioned the 30-minute timeframe that Italy requires for Cloudflare to disable access to suspected piracy traffic.

«We block pirate streams every time we find one,» he wrote. «We hate them.» But, he said, «we can’t put in place a system where a shadowy cabal can require us to remove GLOBALLY anything they don’t like on the internet within 30 minutes. That’s insane.»

Some of the proponents of Italy’s piracy rules are soccer teams that want to prevent the illegal streaming of their matches.

Prince went on to list steps his company might take, including pulling its cybersecurity service from the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, removing Cloudflare servers from Italian cities and holding off on any plans to invest in the country. Prince also suggested he would get US government leaders involved, tagging Vice President JD Vance in his post. Prince also reposted a message addressed to the Italian prime minister, along with an article about Italy’s actions.

The Winter Olympics, scheduled to take place between Feb. 6 and Feb. 22 at sites across Lombardy and Northeast Italy, are a sensitive subject when it comes to cybersecurity, considering the potential that many may use VPN technology to view broadcasts of the event.

Door is open to an agreement, Cloudflare says

In an interview with CNET, a Cloudflare representative said that while the fine from Italy represents more than the company’s total revenue from the country, Cloudflare is still open to an agreement to avoid saying arrivederci to the country.

«We’re still evaluating, and we’re still open to working something out,» said Alyssa Starzak, Cloudflare’s deputy chief legal officer and global head of policy. «That would be a better solution. The hope is we can have some discussions for a more reasonable result.»

Starzak said the company has posted information and conducted outreach to Italian stakeholders about the ways Cloudflare is working to combat unauthorized streaming. But Italy’s law, she said, leaves no room for negotiation or nuance.

«It’s been very much a ‘You must do what we say’ » situation, she said.

Technologies

Transport Your Dungeons & Dragons Hero Off the Page With This Tabletop Gadget

At CES 2026, I found a couple ways that players and dungeon masters can use tech to upgrade their gameplaying experience.

As I walked around CES 2026, my eyes drifted over a poster awash with fantasy heroes, dastardly monsters and rolling dice — and I failed my saving throw to look away. If you’re a fellow tabletop gaming nerd, you might want to follow this pair of gadgets due out later this year.

Tabletop gaming continues to appeal to players with its deliberately analog gameplay, using miniatures, maps, dice and other physical trinkets to keep the focus on real-world play. The niche has grown in popularity over the decades, and a supporting industry has risen around it, offering third-party materials and accessories to enhance the experience. Digital gadgets and software have been added to this mix in recent years, and a new company, Arcalink, has its own supporting products for the avid Dungeons & Dragons player.

The first of Arcalink’s upcoming tabletop augmentations is a gadget that’s small but mighty. About the size of a film canister, the Arcalink One is a rectangular display around 2 to 3 inches long that’s covered in fantasy decorations. These can be swapped out, with one looking like a doorway in stone ruins and another appearing like a blue wizard’s portal (a third, not present but described to me, would look like a Mimic, the classic D&D monster that appears as a treasure chest to trick adventurers).

The Arcalink One’s screen shows a player’s avatar, and since it was built with the fantasy roleplaying game D&D in mind, animations for popular spells that can be triggered by voice commands. Tabletop RPGs encourage the theater of the mind, with players envisioning their characters through vocal descriptions, but the Arcalink One seems like a neat way for them to accessorize with a digital version of their hero (uploaded in JPG or MP4 file formats) that’s neither essential to play nor large enough to be obtrusive — a totemic treat to take from one game to another, swapping out character portraits by using the paired app.

The basilisk in the room is the price tag: the Arcalink One is expected to cost between $100 and $150, Arcalink founder Lizheng Liu told me. While the company hasn’t hashed out the final numbers, that first number is the device itself, and the high end of the range will bundle more of those clip-on decorations along with it.

Over $100 for an optional device is prohibitive for most tabletop players, but I imagine this would appeal to adventurers with deeper pockets who want a neat little plug-and-play gadget to bring more flair to the game table. Also, let’s not pretend tabletop fans aren’t already spending a good amount of money on accessories, dice and miniatures (looking at you, wargamers).

The company plans to let a select group of supporters start backing the Arcalink One in March or April, with a full Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign launching around June.

The second product, Arca Studio, is entirely digital: AI-powered software to help dungeon masters, the thankless gameplay managers who tell the story and give voice to their world’s denizens for their characters to experience. No, it’s not using generative AI to spit out campaign ideas — this AI software records your game sessions and will make it easy to go back and search for characters and plot events while planning ahead of your next game day.

Yes, this is a sort of gaming version of the AI summaries that productivity apps offer when, say, you’ve finished a video chat, but there are a few unique features tailored to tabletop gaming. One makes a word cloud grouping together recurring names and concepts in your campaign recordings to visualize the themes and frequent elements — great for dungeon masters to see which plot lines and adventure types they might be overusing to switch them up.

Arca Studio will launch around May or June and will be a subscription service, though Arcalink hasn’t decided on an expected monthly cost yet. It’s worth pointing out that anything could change in pricing or product features before these two products reach the market — and just like a good tabletop campaign, there might be some last-minute twists that change everything.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Tuesday, Jan. 13

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Jan. 13.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? It features one of those annoying elements, where the puzzlemakers tie two clues together. In this case, you can’t really solve 4-Across and 7-Across separately, so you need to fill in the other answers to see these answers develop. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.