CommonPass international trials begin

The ability to share health information in a verifiable, safe and privacy protecting manner is key to opening borders, whether travelling by land or air.

Trials have now begun of CommonPass, a digital health pass for travellers to securely document their certified COVID-19 test status while keeping their health data private. The aim is to enable safer airline and cross border travel by giving both travellers and governments confidence in each traveller’s verified COVID-19 status.

The Commons Project Foundation and the World Economic Forum are running international trials for CommonPass.

CommonPass is built on the CommonPass Framework that establishes standard methods for lab results and vaccination records to be certified and enables governments to set and verify their own health criteria for travellers.

The purpose of CommonPass and the CommonPass Framework is to enable safer airline and cross border travel by giving both travellers and governments confidence in each traveller’s verified COVID-19 status.

At present, COVID-19 test results for travel are frequently shared on paper or photos of the paper from unknown labs, often written in languages foreign to those inspecting them. There is no standard format or certification system.

Cathay Pacific Airways and United Airlines began trials of the system in October with volunteers on flights between London, New York, Hong Kong and Singapore, with government authorities observing.

Trials are planned with additional airlines and routes across Asia, Africa, the Americas, Europe and the Middle East.

To use CommonPass, travellers take a COVID-19 test at a certified lab and upload the results to their mobile phone. They then complete any additional health screening questionnaires required by the destination country. With test results and questionnaire complete, CommonPass confirms a traveller’s compliance with the destination country entry requirements and generates a QR code. Airline staff and border officials can scan that code. A QR code can be printed for users without mobile devices.

CommonPass adheres to tight privacy principles and is designed to protect personal data in compliance with relevant privacy regulations.

For governments, CommonPass and the CommonPass Framework may provide a more reliable means of assessing the health status of incoming travellers and give them the flexibility to adapt their entry requirements as the pandemic evolves, including whether and what type of lab tests or vaccinations to require.

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. With trusted individual health data, countries can implement more nuanced health screening requirements for entry.

CommonPass and the CommonPass Framework are launched by the World Economic Forum and The Commons Project, a Swiss-based non-profit foundation.

The goal of the trials is to replicate the full traveller experience of taking a test for COVID-19 prior to departure, uploading the result to their phones, and demonstrating their compliance with entry requirements at their departure and destination airports.

CommonPass also helps travellers stay up-to-date with and adhere to evolving government entry policies.