When traveling in 2021, you may need to remember to bring two passports.
Several companies are developing “passport” applications that can confirm a person’s coronavirus vaccine and test their condition. The check could be used to travel by plane or attend large meetings, such as concerts, CNN reported.
One such passport, developed by the Common Trust Network, is collaborating with airlines such as JetBlue, United, Virgin Atlantic, Swiss Air Lines, Cathay Pacific and Lufthansa, and hundreds of health systems in the US and Aruba.
Named the CommonPass app, users can post a result of the COVID-19 test or, eventually, the test of a medical professional who has 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 scanned by flight attendants or security personnel. The app will also show the health requirements at the traveler’s departure and arrival destination.
“You can try yourself every time you cross a border. You can’t get vaccinated every time you cross a border, ”said Commons Project spokesman Thomas Crampton.
They are not the only ones looking for the future of meeting in small spaces. IBM is developing a Digital Health Pass, which would establish health requirements for entry, such as a negative test, vaccination, and temperature control. The results would be stored in a digital portfolio.
Some companies are also developing a smart card that can store credentials for those who do not have smartphones.
“It simply came to our notice then [about] how can this digital credential be stored, not only through smartphones, but also in other ways for those people who do not have stable internet access and do not own smartphones ”, Lucy Yang, co- leader explained the COVID-19 Credentials Initiative. “We are studying it and there are companies that are doing a very promising job.
While they will be effective at communicating information, there is no way to know if passports will make travel safer.
“We still don’t know if vaccinated people can transmit the infection or not,” Dr. Julie Parsonnet, an infectious disease specialist at Stanford University, told CNN.
“Until this is clarified, we will not know if the ‘passports’ will be effective.”