As air travel significantly increases the chance of getting and spreading COVID-19, numerous organizations worldwide have come forward to rebuild people’s confidence in air travel and develop novel solutions that can protect people.
In a similar move, the World Economic Forum and Commons Project Foundation have reportedly introduced a new digital health pass for travelers named ‘CommonPass’ to document their COVID-19 test outcomes while keeping their health data private.
Sources cite that the trial of CommonPass will start this week. The digital pass is built on the foundation of CommonPass Framework that creates standard methods to record vaccination and lab results data and enables government agencies to verify and set their own health criteria for travelers.
The main goal of CommonPass Framework and CommonPass is to enable safer air travel by offering both governments and travelers confidence in each traveler’s verified COVID-19 status.
Presently, COVID-19 test outcomes for air travel are generally shared on printed paper or photos or scan copies of the paper from unknown labs. No standard systems, formats, or certifications are being used to store COVID-19 data securely.
To use CommonPass, air travelers are required to take a COVID-19 test at a certified lab and upload the outcomes to their smartphone. Then, they have to finish extra health screening questionnaires needed by the destination nation.
With this procedure, CommonPass ensures that all travelers comply with the destination nation entry requirements and creates a QR code. That code can be scanned by border officials and airline staff. This code can be printed for travelers without a smartphone. The digital pass adheres to stringent privacy norms and is developed to safeguard personal data.
As per sources, United Airlines and Cathay Pacific Airways will trial this system in October and select volunteers on flights between New York, London, Hong Kong, and Singapore, under the government observation. Deployments are also planned with added airlines and routes across Africa, Asia Pacific, the Americas, Middle East, and Europe in quick succession.
Source credit - https://finance.yahoo.com/news/commonpass-digital-health-pass-global-040100534.html