Here’s why you may start using Immunity Passports in the near future

The COVID-19 pandemic has proven to be a grave setback to many industries. Particularly for the travel industry, the pandemic has brought everyone down to their knees. But it’s always important to look at the bright side of things. You cannot stop travelling altogether until the end of time. Even if it is not for luxury, you might end up travelling for necessities at least in the near future. To provide you with the utmost safety and security, many governments are coming up with the initiative of immunity passports. This is a new initiative and its development is still in the nascent stage. But it will be interesting to see how this pans out especially in all COVID resistant countries.

What is an Immunity Passport?

So what exactly is an immunity passport? According to Husayn Kassai, the co-founder of Onfido, “An immunity passport is a presentable proof of immunity to COVID-19.” Onfido, a London-based company has specialised in facial biometric certification for a long time now. Not only will the design of an immunity passport help you in proving that you have been tested but also ensure that you do not have to divulge any of your personal information.

Immunity passports allow travellers to create a digital identity for themselves by way of uploading an official document in addition to a selfie. After appropriate verification using AI technology, you will have to receive a certificate of immunity issued by the National Health Service. This will make your immunity passport valid after which a code will be generated. You can use this code to enter workplaces and airports. This will help the concerned authorities understand the level of testing which has been done on you.

Who is it going to benefit?

Countries like the United Kingdom, Italy, the U.S and a few South American countries were one among the first ones to get hit by COVID-19. Thus, various facial recognition and identity forms across these countries are bringing out proposals. Some other measures which have been adopted include health certificates and health code apps especially in countries like China. The idea is to ensure that a person is symptom-free and eventually COVID-resistant. This will also give the country a status check about the number of potential carriers of the virus.

Immunity passports will also prove to be a huge boon for the travel industry. In the year 2019, it was said that there was a huge surge in travel and tourism which contributed immensely to many countries’ GDP. Apart from this, there were also a number of jobs which were offered in the travel industry. A loss triple of that is what the travel industry is staring at with millions of people across the globe left jobless. Immunity passports will facilitate a smooth and safe passenger movement across airlines. It is only a matter of time before this becomes a mandatory affair. Soon, you will have to produce an immunity passport at the time of boarding.

Also read: World’s Most Powerful Passports as Impacted by COVID-19

Problem areas

Although this seems like a welcome move, scientists across the globe are still uncertain about the nature of the virus itself. The whole initiative of immunity passports will be ridden with loopholes as a result. Each person’s immune system will react differently to the nature of the virus. Hence, you cannot say for sure that immunity passports will be able to provide clear cut information. Scientists have also discovered that even if a person has recovered from COVID-19, they mysteriously do not develop antibodies. This is a cause for concern as it may provide false results in immunity passports.

Also read: E-passports for Indian Citizens from 2021

There are even reports which suggest that people carry the virus in their body even after three months of recovery. Hopefully, when a COVID-19 vaccine is out, it can be made mandatory across countries to allow entry only on production of a vaccination certificate. Having embraced the digital mode of living, immunity passports surely comes as a welcome change. But putting it to practice will be a challenge. Although it is difficult, we believe that it is not impossible to achieve.

Even though your travel plans might have been stalled at the moment, with emerging travel trends like staycation deals, you can always quench your thirst for wanderlust. To help you plan the perfect getaway, you can rely on travel companies like Pickyourtrail to provide you with the best. Travel is life! Let’s write that statement in gold, shall we?

Also Read: What is ECR & ECNR in Indian passport?