New COVID-19 Passport Could Help Relaunch International Travel

It has become clear that we won’t see a real resumption of international travel under the world’s current haphazard array of individual border controls and entry requirements.

For global travel to start returning to pre-pandemic volumes, not only will universal COVID-19 testing and tracing need to be implemented, but travelers will need an efficient way to provide their testing (and, eventually, vaccination) status on demand.

Enter CommonPass, a new digital health passport that will enable travelers to securely document and carry their COVID-19 test results and certified health status while keeping the rest of their health information private. The ability to readily verify travelers’ test results, coming from a certified lab, could prove key to a broader opening of international borders, say co-creators The Commons Project Foundation and World Economic Forum.

The Common Project, a non-profit based in Switzerland, is working in conjunction with representatives of 37 countries on six continents and has just begun international trials of CommonPass and the CommonPass Framework, which also provides individual countries with the flexibility to adapt their entry requirements as the pandemic evolves and implement them in real-time.

Here’s how it works:

—Travelers should take their COVID-19 test at an accredited/certified lab (list available in-app) and then upload the results to their mobile phone. They would then also complete any additional health screening questionnaires required by the destination country.

—The CommonPass framework assesses whether the individual’s lab-test results come from a trusted source, and satisfy the current health-screening and entry requirements of their destination country.

—If everything checks out, CommonPass generates a unique QR code, which can be scanned by airline agents and border officials, displaying the travelers’ COVID-related health status without revealing other private information.

“Individual national responses will not be sufficient to address this global crisis,” said Christoph Wolff, Head of Mobility at the World Economic Forum. “Bans, bubbles and quarantines may provide short-term protection, but developed and developing nations alike need a long-term, flexible and risk-based approach like CommonPass.”

“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 of The Commons Project and former Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “With trusted individual health data, countries can implement more nuanced health screening requirements for entry.”

Cathay Pacific is conducting the first trial on a flight between Hong Kong International Airport and Singapore Changi International Airport, using rapid-testing technology provided by the Hong Kong-based laboratory Prenetics, Forbes reported.

United Airlines will be the U.S.’ first airline to pilot the platform using volunteers on flights between London Heathrow Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport. Following these October trials, CommonPass’ rollout will quickly extend to more airlines and other routes across the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

Presently, there is no standard format or certification system for travelers’ reported COVID-19 test results. They often come from labs that would be unknown (and untrusted) outside of their own country, and evidence of results is provided through photos/screenshots of a printed page or on actual paper. Documentation is also often written in languages that are foreign to the officers inspecting them at the destination.

For more information, visit thecommonsproject.org/commonpass.