When it comes to travel in 2021, you may need to consider bringing with you two passports.
Several companies are developing passport apps that can vouch for someone’s coronavirus vaccine and test statuses. The verification could then be used to travel on airplanes or attend large gatherings such as concerts, CNN reported.
Such a passport, developed by the Common Trust Network, works with airlines including JetBlue, United, Virgin Atlantic, Swiss Air Lines, Cathay Pacific and Lufthansa, and hundreds of health 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 disclosing personal information, the app generates a certificate in the form of a QR code that can be scanned by flight attendants or security personnel. The app also provides an overview of the health requirements at a traveler’s departure and arrival destination.
“Every time you cross a border, you can be tested. You can’t get vaccinated every time you cross a border, ”said Thomas Crampton, spokesman for the Commons Project.
They’re not the only ones looking to the future of congregating in tight spaces. IBM is developing a Digital Health Pass, which allows sites to set health entry requirements such as a negative test, vaccination and temperature check. 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 to store that digital ID can be presented, not only via smartphones, but also in other ways for people who don’t have access to stable internet and also don’t own a smartphone, “Lucy Yang, co-lead of the COVID-19 Credentials Initiative, explained “We are investigating and there are companies that are doing really promising work.
While they are effective in communicating information, there is no way of knowing whether the passports will make travel safer.
“We still don’t know whether vaccinated people can transmit an infection or not,” Dr. Julie Parsonnet, an infectious disease specialist at Stanford University, at CNN.
“Until that is cleared up, we don’t know if ‘passports’ are effective.”