The COVID-2019 Thread

[Troy]

^ Such discrimination would put pressure on governments to approve vaccines and to administer to those that have money. It also encourages black market supply and forged certificates.

[Switch]

^ Such discrimination would put pressure on governments to approve vaccines and to administer to those that have money. It also encourages black market supply and forged certificates.

The point being that governments are responsible for recording delivery of the vaccine, and expert medical advice is a pre requisite to emergency authorization of vaccines.
Airlines can introduce systems to support proof of testing and vaccination, but for any trial to succeed, governments have to sign off on it.
Secure verification is probably possible today, otherwise, why would IATA invest in an app?

[harrybarracuda]

^ Such discrimination would put pressure on governments to approve vaccines and to administer to those that have money. It also encourages black market supply and forged certificates.

There is already pressure on governments to approve vaccines, and how they administer them is their business and has NOTHING to do with this.

As for the black market, there are already fake PCR tests, so there is still a requirement to check their veracity.

Any time I have a test, I can get the results of that test online the same day. I would assume that participating countries will be able to digitally -and securely - insert that into the app, so to speak. The same would go for a vaccination certificate. So your second point is irrelevant, too.

I'll try and dig out some more info on how the app is intended to work.

[harrybarracuda]

The Iata Travel Pass will manage and verify the secure flow of testing or vaccine information among governments, airlines, laboratories and travellers, the organisation said in a statement on Tuesday.

The first cross-border Travel Pass pilot is scheduled for later this year, while the launch is slated for the first quarter of next year.

The Travel Pass will provide accurate information on travel, testing and vaccine requirements for a passenger’s journey. It will display information on testing centres and labs at the departure location which meet the standards for testing and vaccination requirements in the destination. The pass will also display test results along with proof of inoculation, as well as listing national entry rules.

In a briefing, Iata’s head of passenger and security products, Alan Murray Hayden, said the Travel Pass will be free to travellers and governments, with airlines paying a small fee per passenger to use the service. It will be based on the existing Iata Timatic system to verify documents. The app will use block-chain technology and won’t store data, Mr Hayden said.

Iata in final stages of creating mobile app for Covid-free passport travel | The National

[harrybarracuda]

I think it's safe to say that deeks, klondyke and skidmark can sleep easy tonight.

COVID-19 May 'Hide' in Brains and Cause Relapses, Study Says

https://www.newsweek.com/covid-19-may-hide-brains-cause-relapses-study-says-1563567

[bsnub]

Newly sworn in President Joe Biden and his advisers are inheriting no coronavirus vaccine distribution plan to speak of from the Trump administration, sources tell CNN, posing a significant challenge for the new White House.The Biden administration has promised to try to turn the Covid-19 pandemic around and drastically speed up the pace of vaccinating Americans against the virus. But in the immediate hours following Biden being sworn into office on Wednesday, sources with direct knowledge of the new administration's Covid-related work told CNN one of the biggest shocks that the Biden team had to digest during the transition period was what they saw as a complete lack of a vaccine distribution strategy under former President Donald Trump, even weeks after multiple vaccines were approved for use in the United States.

"There is nothing for us to rework. We are going to have to build everything from scratch," one source said.

Another source described the moment that it became clear the Biden administration would have to essentially start from "square one" because there simply was no plan as: "Wow, just further affirmation of complete incompetence."

The incoming White House now faces intense pressure to make good on the promises that Biden made during the campaign and the transition phase to drastically turn things around on the pandemic and conduct himself entirely differently from Trump when it comes to the virus and vaccine distribution. During the transition period, Biden was openly critical of what he described as a "dismal" rollout of the Covid vaccines under the Trump administration, making clear that he placed significant blame on his predecessor for the situation he would ultimately inherit.

Two Covid-19 vaccines were approved for use in the United States before Trump left office. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 16.5 million vaccine doses had been administered as of January 20 -- far short of the last administration's goal of administering 20 million vaccine doses by the end of 2020.

The new administration has asked some of the key players who worked on Covid and vaccines under Trump to resign from their roles, including Operation Warp Speed chief scientific adviser Moncef Slaoui and Surgeon General Jerome Adams. It has kept on others such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is now serving as Biden's chief medical adviser on Covid-19. Adams was asked to stay on as an adviser.
In a White House press briefing Thursday afternoon, Fauci rejected the suggestion that the Biden administration would have to build a distribution plan from "scratch."

"We're certainly not starting from scratch, because there is activity going on in the distribution," Fauci said, adding that the Biden administration is "amplifying" in significant ways existing vaccine distribution efforts.

"I mean we're coming in with fresh ideas, but also some ideas with ... the previous administration. You can't say it was absolutely not usable at all," Fauci said.

Prior to Inauguration Day, some of Biden's Covid-19 advisers had wanted to be careful not to be overly critical in public of the Trump administration's handling of the virus and vaccine, given that the Biden transition team was already having a hard time getting critical information and cooperation from the outgoing administration, a source said.

Now that the transition of power has taken place, the Biden administration is hoping that they can quickly start to get a clearer picture of where things actually stand with vaccine distribution and administration across the country, going through something of a "fact-checking" exercise on what exactly the Trump administration had and had not done, they added.

CNN has previously reported that the Biden team's most urgent concerns on Covid-19 include potential vaccine supply problems, coordination between federal and local governments, as well as funding, staffing and other resource needs for local governments. That is in addition to the emerging Covid variants, which the new White House -- in consultation with scientists and experts -- is watching warily.

Biden has made clear that slowing down the spread of Covid-19 and getting 100 million vaccine shots into Americans' arms in his first 100 days in office are of utmost priority -- goals that will shape whether Biden's first years in office are ultimately deemed successful.

Within hours of being sworn into office, Biden signed an executive order requiring masks on all federal property, a part of his campaign promise to push for a federal mask mandate during his first 100 days in office.

"This is going to be the first of many engagements we're going to have in here," Biden said in his first appearance in the Oval Office as president. "I thought with the state of the nation today there's no time to waste. Get to work immediately."

On Biden's first full day in office on Thursday, the White House is focusing on Covid-19 by rolling out a national strategy for getting the pandemic under control including numerous executive actions related to vaccination and testing.

Criticizing the "lack of cooperation" from the Trump administration as an "impediment" for the new administration, White House Covid coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters on Wednesday that he was still confident that the administration can meet its 100 million vaccine shots in 100 days target.

"For almost a year now, Americans could not look to the federal government for any strategy, let alone a comprehensive approach to respond to Covid," Zients said. "And we've seen the tragic costs of that failure. As President Biden steps into office today ... that'll change tomorrow."

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/21/polit...ump/index.html

[David48atTD]

>



Dog keeps running away from home to spend days outside Turkish hospital waiting for sick owner

A devoted dog has spent days waiting outside a hospital in northern Turkey where its sick owner was receiving treatment.

Key points:

• Boncuk had been running away from home and returning to the hospital by itself
• It would wait from about 9:00am until nightfall for Mr Senturk to emerge
• When the hospital doors opened it would poke its head inside looking for Mr Senturk

The pet, named Boncuk — which means bead — followed the ambulance that transported its owner, Cemal Senturk, to hospital in the Black Sea city of Trabzon on January 14.


It then made daily visits to the facility, private Turkish news agency DHA reported on Wednesday.
Mr Senturk's daughter, Aynur Egeli, said she would take Boncuk home but the dog would repeatedly run off and return to the hospital.




"She has been waiting here at the hospital for three, four days. She runs away from home and comes here, all by herself," she said.
Hospital security guard Muhammet Akdeniz said: "She comes every day around 9:00am and waits until nightfall. She doesn't go in."
"When the door opens she pokes her head inside," he said.


Here

[cyrille]

The Vaccine passport is proposed for this summer, which is seven months away , and by that time most of those who want to be vaccinated should have the opportunity to do so.

What a ridiculous comment.

You have a habit of vastly over-extrapolating from your own needs, and expecting the world to fall in line with them.

Needs which I guess will reach a zenith in mid August, when summer supposedly begins.

Is that when you've booked your tickets for, by any chance?

[harrybarracuda]

What a ridiculous comment.

You have a habit of vastly over-extrapolating from your own needs, and expecting the world to fall in line with them.

Needs which I guess will reach a zenith in mid August, when summer supposedly begins.

Is that when you've booked your tickets for, by any chance?

Regardless of his own personal motives, do you agree that it is up to individual countries to decide if they want to lift quarantine restrictions for the vaccinated?

And how will vaccinated Huns feel about not having access to such freedom of travel because their government refuses to participate in a scheme that would enable it for them?

[cyrille]

do you agree that it is up to individual countries to decide if they want to lift quarantine restrictions for the vaccinated?

I do, and whatever anyone thinks that is of course what will happen.

At the moment liaison with one's nearest Thai embassy is advisable before flying to Bangkok, and I note that's what Mendip did before his trip.

So getting one's ducks in line with the relevant embassy will be the way to go, I'd have thought.

A 'jab passport' would be ideal, but it looks like practicalities would make it impossible, certainly this year.

From my admittedly limited experience so far the Thai embassies seem to be on their game.

[Joe 90]

Ffs

Wuhan has long since recovered from the world's first outbreak of Covid-19. It is now being remembered not as a disaster but as a victory, and with an insistence that the virus came from somewhere - anywhere - but here.

From the moment a new, pandemic coronavirus emerged in the same city as a laboratory dedicated to the study of new coronaviruses with pandemic potential, Prof Shi Zhengli has found herself the focus of one of the biggest scientific controversies of our time.

For much of the past year she has met the suggestion that Sars-Cov-2 might have escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology with angry denial.

WUHAN INSTITUTE OF VIROLOGY
image captionThe Wuhan Institute of Virology
Now though, she has offered her own thoughts on how the initial outbreak may have begun in the city.

In an article in this month's edition of Science Magazine she referred to a number of studies that, she said, suggest the virus existed outside of China before Wuhan's first known case in December 2019.

"Given the finding of Sars-Cov-2 on the surface of imported food packages, contact with contaminated uncooked food could be an important source of Sars-Cov-2 transmission," she wrote.

From one of the world's leading experts on coronaviruses, even the discussion of such a possibility seems unusual.

Could a spiralling outbreak of infection that almost destroyed Wuhan's health system, sparked the world's first Covid lockdown and spawned a global catastrophe really have arrived on imported food without any signs of similarly devastating outbreaks elsewhere?

fishmonger in wuhan
image caption"The virus came from America," this fishmonger told the BBC
But with the virus vanquished, the idea that it is a foreign import is repeated with almost unanimity across this city of 11 million people.

"It came here from other countries," one woman running a hotpot stall in a busy street tells me. "China is a victim."

"Where did it come from?" the next-door fishmonger repeats my question aloud, and then answers: "It came from America."

[Troy]

^^ Bavaria is enforcing the wearing of FFP2 (KN95) masks on public transport and stores starting Monday. Only grocery and pharmacy stores open since the week before Christmas.

Areas with new infections greater than 200/100k over the last 7 days are being limited to 15km travel. Locally it was over 200 last week but dropped below this week. As a comparison, Cheltenham is currently around 300/100k and is a below average for the UK.

Everyone is waiting to see what the numbers are like at the end of the month. There won't be any High Street shops left by the time this pandemic finishes, even the big department stores have closed down.

Local infection rate, here in Bavaria, has dropped from over 200 to high 90's in the last 1 days. Cheltenham is still over 300, dropping little in the same 10 day period. The Virus is either much more prevalent in the UK, or people are not adhering to the advice.

[harrybarracuda]

A 'jab passport' would be ideal, but it looks like practicalities would make it impossible, certainly this year.

Since it's already in trial with two of the world's biggest airlines, I don't think it's a stretch to extend it to their destinations who rely more on tourism.

That includes Thailand, Bali, Cambodia, the Seychelles, The Maldives, Cyprus, and so on. I think Etihad and Emirates would go as far as paying for the Thais to connect.

If countries' immigration services want to verify if people have been vaccinated, all they need to do as set up a link to query the IATA system. If airlines want to check if passengers have been vaccinated, all they need to do is query the IATA system. If governments wish to enable their vaccinated citizens to travel, all they need to do is maintain their own database (which is not difficult) and make that queryable.

IATA have been working on this since November, the practicalities are negligible, since they already have the global network and access points.

The obstacles are stupid governments like the Krauts.

[harrybarracuda]

Up to 100 sites run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency could begin offering coronavirus vaccine within the next month, part of a strategy that would dramatically expand the federal government’s role in the effort to corral the pandemic.

The plan, which was announced by President Biden on his first day in office, is already taking shape in the form of a draft “Concept of Operations,” which was obtained by The Washington Post. The document envisions FEMA, which previously had more of a piecemeal role in pandemic response, fully unleashed.

Its mission will be to “provide federal support to existing or new community vaccination centers and mobile clinics across the country.”

Enlisting FEMA, an agency of the Department of Homeland Security, is among the clearest signals that Biden intends to involve the federal government more directly in the administration of vaccines, instead of leaving the final step of the massive effort to state and local authorities.

“FEMA … will mobilize thousands of clinical and nonclinical staff and contractors who will work hand-in-glove with the National Guard and state and local teams to assist, augment, and expedite the distribution and administration of coronavirus vaccines,” the FEMA document states.

If requested by states and other jurisdictions, the draft notes, “the U.S. Government would develop, equip, provide information management, and staff and operate the site.”

Shots administered at these sites are expected to draw on the vaccine supply made available to individual states and territories, and some large cities, rather than relying on a new federal allocation stream. A lack of abundant vaccine supply will remain the most pressing problem, probably through March.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/healt...ne-mass-sites/

[harrybarracuda]

CINCINNATI — As the supply of vaccine struggles to ramp up to meet demand, there are indicators that Johnson & Johnson is about to give the process a needed boost.“I expect that they’re going to announce any time in the next week or so,” said UC College of Medicine Dr. Carl Fichtenbaum.

Fichtenbaum led the Cincinnati studies on the Moderna vaccine.

“The timing of that is never clear because it’s a highly guarded secret. So, I can’t tell which day, but it will certainly be before the end of the month,” Fichtenbaum said.

Among the indicators are that Johnson & Johnson fully enrolled its study recently and that it is scheduled to meet with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention next Wednesday.

The CDC can’t grant approval, but insiders say the meeting is an indicator that Johnson & Johnson is about to announce the findings of the research on its vaccine.

Emergency approval for the vaccine will have to come from the FDA.

“I think by February, we’re going to have four vaccines available,” said Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Dr. Robert Frenk.

Frenk led the research in Cincinnati on the Pfizer vaccine and is now working on the AstraZeneca vaccine. He said AstraZeneca is about two weeks behind Johnson & Johnson.

“We do have a demand that exceeds supply, but I think that’s going to be short term,” Frenk said.

Johnson & Johnson vaccine next into pipeline, AstraZeneca close behind

[harrybarracuda]

Imagine the arrogance of having a monument for a virus you caused and covered up, that has killed more than two million people. I fear Zhang Hong will be called in for a bit of Tibetan-monk-style "re-education" unless the WSJ changed her name to protect her.

WUHAN, China—In the original center of the coronavirus pandemic, there is a monument to China’s fight against Covid-19.

The former site of an emergency field hospital that treated hundreds of patients at the peak of the outbreak now hosts an exhibition on Wuhan’s “decisive victory in the battle” against the viral enemy.

A year after the virus broke out here, though, there is a widespread feeling that the triumphalism is misplaced.

For some in Wuhan, there is a sense that it is too soon to declare victory and that the tone is inappropriate. For others, particularly those who lost loved ones at the height of the chaos, there is anger at the government for not acting more quickly and openly.

When Vice Premier Sun Chunlan visited during the city’s quarantine last March to show the situation was under control, she was heckled. Some residents shouted “It’s all fake!” from their apartment windows. Anger still simmers to the point that some are willing to openly criticize the government when such candor is rare, and potentially dangerous.

“We are very angry,” said Zhang Hong, a resident who lost her father to Covid-19 in February. “We used to have a lot of faith in the government—we assumed they’d handle matters like this properly and not put us in danger.”

Instead, officials initially tried to cover up the outbreak rather than confront it, she said. “Now we’re much more skeptical when it comes to trusting the government.”

Anger at China’s Covid-19 Response Smolders in Wuhan - WSJ

[panama hat]

The criticism-averse PM-PR-Bubble is bursting. Kiwis generally have a thin skin when it comes to critique (very nice people otherwise) and the PM is a blinding example of this:

Timely test: Fears a 'sluggish' response will lead to another Covid-19 outbreak
If New Zealand was to knock up a CV, surely a contender for top of the list of achievements would be its response to coronavirus, right?
Check out all the glowing international tributes. Listen to the praise from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for our “Team of Five Million”. And look at all the events we can enjoy now.
Nailing it, aren’t we?
It’s a source of national pride. But there’s a thing about pride – as the old proverb warns, it can come before a fall.


And some experts believe that’s what we’re at risk of right now: that a giddy sense of self-satisfaction is blinding us to the fact we are in mortal danger; that we could be caught flat-footed, just as the promised land of a virus-vanquishing vaccine appears.

And this is not just about the slumped rates of QR code scanning. It goes to the top, and seeps throughout the whole system, warns one senior doctor.


“There's just been this reluctance to engage with anybody else with ideas,” says Professor Des Gorman. “What underpins this reticence? Political risk has driven a culture of ‘best in show’, ‘we're the envy of the world’. It's a very pervasive culture, and it's the wrong culture. The culture we should have is: how do we do better tomorrow than we did yesterday?”
Gorman, a former associate dean of the Auckland Medical School, has criticised the country’s response before, most notably when he said the country had been caught “with its pants down”, a critique which earned him a rebuke from Ardern.


Before he goes on, though, he wants to clarify something: “Look, we’re not arguing that everything's bad, and everything's rotten, and they're a bunch of a...holes – we're simply saying we need to adopt a culture of every day, trying to do better.”
And that’s the problem, he says. As soon as we started to think we’d done well, we were in a dangerous position.
“The minute you think you're best in show, you become complacent and you start bullsh.....g. You start setting the facts to the narrative rather than narrative to the facts. Hence, the: ‘Everyone’s being tested’. No they’re not. ‘No-one is being let go early’. Oh, yes they are. It just goes on and on.”
It’s a failure of governance and management, he says. And it leads to a resistance to outside ideas.


“When Nick Wilson or Michael Baker suggest [something], then immediately there’s pushback: ‘It’s not our idea, it didn’t come from the Wellington bubble’.
“When Michael started advocating mandatory mask-wearing, what was the response from the ministry? Not proven, not necessary, push back, push back.”
Baker admits he was “disappointed” by the reaction.
“I couldn't understand why there was so much reluctance. It did seem to be a litmus test issue about New Zealand's ability to use evidence and be adaptable, because it seemed to be a pretty poor response.”
Eventually, masks were made mandatory on flights, and public transport in Auckland – but only months after Baker started pushing.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/hea...vid19-outbreak

[Mendip]

I do, and whatever anyone thinks that is of course what will happen.

At the moment liaison with one's nearest Thai embassy is advisable before flying to Bangkok, and I note that's what Mendip did before his trip.

So getting one's ducks in line with the relevant embassy will be the way to go, I'd have thought.

A 'jab passport' would be ideal, but it looks like practicalities would make it impossible, certainly this year.

From my admittedly limited experience so far the Thai embassies seem to be on their game.

Yes, both the London and Stockholm Thai embassies were extremely helpful and the system works well. Currently, so long as you fall within an eligible person category the whole CoE procedure works well and is very quick... at least from my experience. A big hurdle if flying to Thailand or other long haul destinations now seems to be the stringent PCR testing requirements if transiting through European airports.

I still think a jab passport is a long way off, and won't happen at least until the destination countries have their vaccination programmes well under way.



Covid: Vaccinated people may spread virus, says Van-Tam

People who have received a Covid-19 vaccine could still pass the virus on to others and should continue following lockdown rules, England's deputy chief medical officer has warned.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam stressed that scientists "do not yet know the impact of the vaccine on transmission".

He said vaccines offer "hope" but infection rates must come down quickly.

A further 32 vaccine sites are set to open across England this week.

Prof Van-Tam said "no vaccine has ever been" 100% effective, so there is no guaranteed protection.

It is possible to contract the virus in the two- to three-week period after receiving a jab, he said - and it is "better" to allow "at least three weeks" for an immune response to fully develop in older people.

"Even after you have had both doses of the vaccine you may still give Covid-19 to someone else and the chains of transmission will then continue," Prof Van-Tam said.

"If you change your behaviour you could still be spreading the virus, keeping the number of cases high and putting others at risk who also need their vaccine but are further down the queue."


Covid: Vaccinated people may spread virus, says Van-Tam - BBC News

[harrybarracuda]

Says:

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam stressed that scientists "do not yet know the impact of the vaccine on transmission".

Then proceeds to claim he does.

[harrybarracuda]

So now four airlines are working on it:

Singapore Airlines
BA
Etihad
Emirates

How IATA Travel Pass is using blockchain technology to keep passengers in control of their data

In December 2020, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that it is developing a new digital health credential solution that has the potential to reopen international travel and replace compulsory quarantine measures.

As more airlines are announcing trials of the IATA Travel Pass, due to be released in Q1 2021, FTE caught up with Alan Murray Hayden, Head Airport, Passenger and Security Products, to find out more about the technology behind the solution and how it can help restart global aviation.

So, what is Travel Pass? Travel Pass is a mobile app that will enable travellers to store and manage verified information on their health status, COVID-19 tests and vaccines, in line with any government requirements for testing or vaccine information. The concept of health passports has been around for a while – think Yellow Fever card – but digitising it will lead to more security and efficiency than traditional paper-based processes.

“If we look at the broader picture, what has really been driving this initiative is the way quarantine measures are heavily impacting the air transport industry,” Hayden tells FTE. “Earlier in the year we saw that when the Canary Islands lifted their quarantine, the load factors for airlines skyrocketed overnight. The solution to that is testing.”

There is, indeed, industry-wide consensus that testing is the right approach to the ever-changing quarantine measures. However, Hayden highlights that there are two main issues with testing – confidence and scalability. He explains: “When people do get tested, they turn up with a piece of paper and people don’t have confidence in that. And the second point is that agents still need to check these paper documents. And that’s what we are really trying to solve with this solution.”




The IATA Travel Pass is essentially a tool for travellers, but it also communicates with governments, airlines, test centres and vaccination providers to get verified information to those who need it in a safe and secure manner.

Hayden explains that IATA has worked closely with the International Airlines Group (IAG) to develop the technology base in four independent components that can interact with each other. These modules include a global registry of health requirements where the traveller can find accurate information on travel, testing and vaccine requirements; a global registry of testing/vaccination centres to identify testing centres and labs at departure location; Lab app, which allows authorised labs and test centres to securely send test results or vaccination certificates to passengers; and a digital passport module.

The solution is designed to be offered as part of the airline’s own mobile application, and the separate modules can either work together as one complete end-to-end solution, or separately to compliment systems that others are building.

“Within the airline app, passengers will be able to create a digital version of their passport, which is important when it comes to linking COVID-19 test results to the traveller’s identity,” explains Hayden. “Once the passenger has a digital version of their passport on their phone, they’ll go to the laboratory and scan a QR code, which creates a link between the passport details and the laboratory, so that they can verify the person’s identity.”

Moreover, the solution is also based on the foundation of IATA’s Timatic offering, which has provided reliable entry requirement information to airlines and travellers for over 60 years. Once the passenger receives their test results, they send them into the Timatic system, which then confirms whether they’re fit to travel.

“So, now passengers have three key things on their phone – their digital passports, test results and what we call an ‘okay to travel’. Passengers can then choose whether to share this data on the airline app. They will be prompted to submit their data and if they click on submit it will be sent to the airline. This is simple from a passenger perspective – literally with the click of a couple of buttons the airline now has all passenger’s details, and they’re 100% sure that the passenger is okay to fly.”

With the new app, IATA is also hoping to address some of the bottlenecks that could be created once passenger numbers bounce back again. “Replacing the paper documents with electronic version and using the verifiable credential will allow airlines to push all of this off airport, so passengers arrive completely documented,” explains Hayden.

The first trials of the app will start in February with Singapore Airlines and British Airways, and just this week Etihad and Emirates also announced trials starting in April.

Prior to a full roll out, Emirates will implement phase 1 in Dubai for the validation of COVID-19 PCR tests before departure. In this initial phase, expected to begin in April 2021, Emirates customers travelling from Dubai will be able to share their COVID-19 test status directly with the airline even before reaching the airport through the app, which will then auto-populate the details on the check-in system.

For Etihad Airways, the IATA Travel Pass will initially be offered to guests on selected flights from Abu Dhabi in the first quarter of 2021. If successful, the pass will be extended to other destinations on the Etihad network.

Hayden also shared with FTE that IATA is in conversations with 15 of the largest airlines in the world to start trialling the solution in the coming months.

Blockchain technology

The deployment of new and emerging technologies, such as digital health passports, however, brings with it a number of challenges, and protecting customer’s data is one of them. What is important to note about the Travel Pass solution is that it uses decentralised blockchain technology, ensuring there is no central database that could be hacked to access personal information. “This is the beauty of the technology we’re using; it puts the passenger in complete control of their data.

There’s no central database and nobody can hack it. The passenger owns their data and they share it with the airline. It’s so powerful and it’s probably one of the first ever examples of blockchain technology being implemented in a way that benefits people,” Hayden says.

Need for standardisation

Moreover, now that COVID-19 vaccination continues apace, Hayden explains that the Travel Pass solution will be able to cater for both COVID-19 test results and vaccination. However, he urges the whole industry to look into the bigger picture. “What we need is electronic vaccination certificates. This is the only thing that will make society free again to do all the things they need to do.”

He adds: “And that is one part that IATA is pushing really hard for. Governments are focusing on everybody getting vaccinated as a health issue, but the other part of the equation is the proof of vaccination. IATA is committed to working with the World Health Organization and other bodies to come up with the necessary standardisation.”

Indeed, standardisation will be key to the mass rollout of digital health passports and FTE is committed to driving the discussion forward. Therefore, in the upcoming Virtual Expo 2021, we will be staging a dedicated Digital Health Passports Symposium, which will bring together industry bodies, airlines, airports and technology partners to discuss the potentials of rolling out this technology in a safe, secure and unified manner. More details will be announced soon.

Through our theme of “Relaunching global air transport”, Virtual Expo 2021 will champion bold new ideas, solutions, collaborations and innovation efforts across the exhibition, conferences and networking activities to ensure we achieve an industry recovery that makes air transport even stronger in the long-term.

How IATA Travel Pass is using blockchain technology to keep passengers in control of their data.

[harrybarracuda]

Thai hotel groups urge scrapping of quarantine rules for vaccinated tourists

Thailand’s hotel operators are pressing the government to scrap quarantine requirements for foreign tourists who have been vaccinated for coronavirus in an effort to kickstart the paralysed industry.Two leading hotel groups told the Financial Times they supported ending the mandatory 14-day quarantine for non-Thai visitors who could prove they had been vaccinated.“We should be very quickly allowing people who are safely vaccinated to travel without quarantine,” said William Heinecke, chairman of Minor International, Thailand’s largest listed hotel and hospitality group. “There are tremendous numbers of people who won’t come to Thailand, or won’t come to any country that has a quarantine, because it takes too much time.”

Subscribe to read | Financial Times

[nidhogg]

Thai hotel groups urge scrapping of quarantine rules for vaccinated tourists

Thailand’s hotel operators are pressing the government to scrap quarantine requirements for foreign tourists who have been vaccinated for coronavirus in an effort to kickstart the paralysed industry.Two leading hotel groups told the Financial Times they supported ending the mandatory 14-day quarantine for non-Thai visitors who could prove they had been vaccinated.“We should be very quickly allowing people who are safely vaccinated to travel without quarantine,” said William Heinecke, chairman of Minor International, Thailand’s largest listed hotel and hospitality group. “There are tremendous numbers of people who won’t come to Thailand, or won’t come to any country that has a quarantine, because it takes too much time.”

Subscribe to read | Financial Times

Yup. We know that vaccinated people don't spread the disease.

Oh, wait, no we fucking don't......

[Cujo]

I had to scan a barcode today. An app appeared requiring me to input full name and passport details and phone number then a verification code was sent to my number and upon entering code up popped my details with the place and date and results of my most recent covid test (June).
Another one gives me a green arrow indicating I am ok to enter. Meaning I haven't been anywhere that would require me to quarantine.

[katie23]

Recently, PI has implemented that people coming into the country have to be tested for covid twice. Once upon arrival at the airport, then another while quarantine (5th day), similar to TH. If the 2nd test is negative, then the person can finish quarantine at home. The person is turned over to the local govt. From what I've heard/ seen, the local govt checks up on the person by calling or home visits - depends on the locale.

They changed the rules recently because of the new UK variant. They found people who was initially negative (came from UK then via mid east airline) then turned out to be positive when he was in his province, infecting family members. The guy was an OFW from UK who went home for Christmas.

Formerly, it was only 2 day hotel quarantine (until you get the results of the 1st test) then 12 days home quarantine. But ppl don't usually quarantine at home - they don't isolate & usually mingle with family members.

[harrybarracuda]

I had to scan a barcode today. An app appeared requiring me to input full name and passport details and phone number then a verification code was sent to my number and upon entering code up popped my details with the place and date and results of my most recent covid test (June).
Another one gives me a green arrow indicating I am ok to enter. Meaning I haven't been anywhere that would require me to quarantine.

OK to enter what?