A new app is currently being trialed by United Airlines on flights between Newark and London, and Cathay Pacific on flights between Hong Kong and Singapore. The app, called Common Pass, seeks to standardize the way that airport officials can verify someone’s COVID-19 test results.
According to the Independent, officials currently struggle to verify COVID-19 test results. With results being just printed pieces of paper, verifying authenticity is difficult not only because making fake copies is easy, but because there’s often a difference in languages and different countries even have different ways of testing.
But the new app seeks to create an easy, reliable, standardized, and official way of keeping track of COVID results. Passengers simply download the app, upload their COVID test results to it, and answer a few questions. From there, the app creates a QR code that’s easy for airports of any nation to scan and read.
According to MSN, Dr. Bradley Perkins, former chief strategy and innovation officer at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), stated, “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.”
The hope is that with a quality app that can be verified and trusted by nations around the world, international travel will hopefully begin to open up long before the October 2021 date when the CDC claims widespread vaccines will be ready. As the trial continues throughout the month, more information about its success and reliability will be made available.