When it comes to traveling in 2021, you must remember to bring two passports.
Several companies are developing “passport” applications that can attest to a person’s coronavirus vaccine status and testing. The check could then be used to travel on airplanes or attend large meetings, such as concerts, CNN reported.
One of these passports, developed by the Common Trust Network, is in partnership with airlines, including JetBlue, United, Virgin Atlantic, Swiss Air Lines, Cathay Pacific and Lufthansa, and hundreds of healthcare systems in the US and Aruba.
Called the CommonPass app, users can upload a COVID-19 test result or, eventually, proof from a medical professional that they received both doses of the vaccine.
Instead of revealing personal information, the app would generate a certificate in the form of a QR code that could be read by flight attendants or security personnel. The app will also list health requirements at the traveler’s departure and arrival destination.
“You can be tested every time you cross a border. You cannot be vaccinated every time you cross a border, ”said Commons Project spokesman Thomas Crampton.
They are not the only ones looking to the future of the meeting in tight spaces. IBM is developing a Digital Health Pass, which would allow sites to define health requirements for entry, such as a negative test, vaccination and temperature check. The results would be stored in a digital wallet.
Some companies are also developing a smart card that can store credentials for those who don’t have smartphones.
“For us it is [about] how this digital credential can be stored, it can be presented, not only through smartphones, but also in other ways for those people who do not have access to the stable internet and also do not have smartphones ”, Lucy Yang, co-leader of the Initiative COVID-19 Credentials, he explained. “We are investigating and there are companies that are doing a really promising job.
Although they are effective in communicating information, there is no way of knowing whether passports will make travel safer.
“We still don’t know whether vaccinated people can transmit the infection or not,” said Dr. Julie Parsonnet, an infectious disease specialist at Stanford University, to CNN.
“Until this is cleared up, we will not know whether ‘passports’ will be effective.”