Scotland's parliament on Thursday backed the introduction of Covid-19 vaccine passports for "higher risk" settings such as nightclubs and music festivals from Oct. 1.

The UK government has already announced plans to introduce vaccine passports in England from the end of this month.

In Scotland, the measure will allow businesses to remain open and help avoid further restrictions as autumn and winter approach, Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said before the vote in Edinburgh.

"We must do all we can to stem the rise in cases and vaccine certification will form part of a range measures which can help us to do this," Yousaf said.

"We do not want to re-impose any of the restrictions that have been in place for much of this year as we all know how much harm they have caused to businesses, to education and to people's general well-being. But we must stem the rise in cases."

The new measures mean that proof of vaccination will required to enter nightclubs, adult entertainment venues as well as live events both indoors and outdoors where people are unseated.

Any event with more than 10,000 people in attendance will also require vaccine certificates.

Staff will use a "verifier app" to check the vaccine status of those attending.

Yousaf said the requirement would motivate younger people to get jabbed.

"We want to ensure that as many people get vaccinated as possible and particularly to increase uptake in the younger age cohort, so anything that helps to incentivise that is helpful," he said.

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told the devolved parliament earlier this week that vaccine passports needed to be implemented rapidly because the rise in cases in Scotland in recent weeks had been "extremely concerning."

Case levels are now five times higher than four weeks ago, she said.

This is largely due to the reopening of schools in Scotland several weeks ago and the prevalence of the highly transmissible Delta variant of COVID-19, Sturgeon said.