© Canadian Press/REX/Shutterstock
Passengers wearing masks navigate Pearson international airport in Toronto. The CommonPass trial will run for passengers flying from Heathrow to Newark, US, on a United Airlines flight next week.
A new digital "health passport" is to be piloted by a small number of passengers flying from the UK to the US for the first time next week under plans for a global framework for Covid-safe air travel.
The CommonPass system, backed by the World Economic Forum (WEF), is designed to create a common international standard for passengers to demonstrate they do not have coronavirus.
However, critics of similar schemes point to concerns over the sensitivity and specificity of the tests in various countries amid fears over greater monitoring over people's movements.
Paul Meyer, the CEO at the Commons Project, which was given startup funding by the Rockefeller Foundation
two years ago and created the digital health pass, said countries that have closed borders and imposed quarantines are looking for ways to "thoughtfully reopen" their borders.
"It's hard to do that," he told the Guardian. "It requires being able to assess the health of incoming travellers ... Hopefully, we'll soon start to see some vaccines come on to the market, but there is not going to be just one vaccine.
Comment: First Johnny Rotten and now 50 Cent? It looks like all the cool kids are getting on the Trump train.
See also: