A V-Health Passport has launched at UK airports to enable passengers to prove they do not have COVID-19.
The platform, developed by Manchester-based tech firm VST Enterprises and based on its existing VCode technology, is now available at John Lennon Airport in Liverpool and Newcastle Airport. It is delivered in conjunction with private companies Salutaris People and Akea Life, which offers COVID-19 testing.
Passengers download the V–Health Passport app from the App Store or Google Play, add in their details and upload their ID such as a driver’s licence or passport.
They can then book a test at one of 200-plus clinics, at the airports themselves or at home. In the latter case, a home test kit is sent out alongside an appointment for a Zoom call with a healthcare professional to ensure it is administered correctly.
A negative test result would then be uploaded to the person’s passport, marking them ‘fit to fly’, which can be scanned from some distance away by security, border officials or airline staff.
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Airlines can also set up a geofenced VCode for each airport gate which the passenger’s V-Health Passport can be scanned against to log them into the system. The same process can then take place at the destination, while the tech can be integrated into existing CCTV cameras for a faster flow of passengers.
VST says all data is anonymised, with no personal details shared, and far more secure than QR Code technology.
A VST spokesperson told BusinessCloud that the firm is talking to many airlines and airports around the world to use the system as “both barcodes and QR codes can be hacked and cause massive data breaches”.
The company says VCodes cannot be cloned or faked as they work on a closed-loop system with end-to-end encryption, with more than 2.2 quintillion variations of codes that are subject to many scanning permissions.
VST CEO Louis-James Davis (above) said chaotic scenes at Heathrow Airport last week – with breaches of social distancing rules, altercations between passengers and border officials and passengers being refused entry to flights for holding invalid COVID-19 certificates – could be avoided with his firm’s tech.
“Both airports and the airlines need to move to a secure digital platform technology to ensure the security and faster processing of passengers to verify their COVID status and vaccination records,” he said.
“We have that technology now and it is available for airline passengers and the airlines to download and use today.”
CoronavirusCOVID-19