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A new “COVID passport” is being trialled at Heathrow, using the world’s first technology that could allow people to travel without the possibility of being quarantined.
The new COVID passport, an app called CommonPass, is being tested in a trial using United Airlines and Cathay Pacific passengers.
The CommonPass app is a digital pass for smartphones that stores a certified coronavirus test status or displays proof of a future vaccine, the Daily Mail reported. The COVID passport has been created to meet several different regulations.
Nonprofit trust Commons Project Foundation, a sector of the World Economic Forum, has designed the COVID passport to allow passengers to travel without paper forms written in various languages.
The new technology behind the COVID passport is still at a trial stage and is being tested by volunteers under surveillance by the government. The volunteers are flying between Hong Kong, London, New York and Singapore.
The COVID passport will be shown to 37 governments, with more on the way to help reopen borders and let people travel, according to Afar.
Each country deciding to use the COVID passport needs to determine which coronavirus tests and labs are credible. Then each country will need to figure out what its requirements for traveller entry are.
Using each country’s unique requirements, the COVID passport will use a digital network and upload individual coronavirus test lab results on the app.
Certified labs will administer coronavirus testing to travellers, and the result will be shown on the COVID passport, Afar reported. Travellers will be fulfilling each country’s requirements for entry by completing an additional health questionnaire.
Airlines will scan passengers’ COVID passport QR code, whether it is printed out or pulled up on a smartphone.
If the COVID passport trials seem to be successful, the CommonPass app could be open for use all around the world.
While not participating in the COVID passport trials, the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will be carefully watching how the testing goes, according to Business Travel News.
Deputy executive director of field operations for CBP Diane Sabatino said the agency wants to participate in the solution for putting air travel back in business and is open to the piloting of the COVID passport, according to Afar.
The travel sector has taken a serious hit during the coronavirus pandemic, but the COVID passport is meant to be a long-term measure to help airplane passengers travel more freely. The hope is that air travel will rebound to as close to pre-coronavirus levels as possible.
However, while the COVID passport seems like a potential solution to travel restrictions, the success of the app will depend on governments across the world allowing test results from certified foreign laboratories.
Countries would have to trust and allow travellers who have certified lab results from elsewhere to enter from different countries without restriction.
“Without the ability to trust COVID-19 tests — and eventually vaccine records — across international borders, many countries will feel compelled to retain full travel bans and mandatory quarantines for as long as the pandemic persists,” said Dr. Bradley Perkins, chief medical officer at The Commons Project, according to the Daily Mail.
Perkins added: “With trusted individual health data, countries can implement more nuanced health screening requirements for entry.”
“Testing is a key component of a multi-layered approach to safely reopening travel,” United regulatory and policy vice president Steve Morrissey said in a press release, according to Business Travel News. “Trials with solutions like CommonPass are critical to demonstrate the potential for testing as an alternative to blanket quarantine measures or travel restrictions, while we continue to focus on the safety and health of our customers and employees.”
If you had the option to use the COVID passport, would you be more willing to book air travel? Share how you feel in the comments.
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