The African Union ‘Trusted Travel’ digital Covid-19 passport for air travellers
Last month, the African Union announced plans to introduce a joint vaccination passport to facilitate free air travellers within the continent amid the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.
The initiative, set up by African Union’s lead health agency, the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), made the passport available to airlines since March 2021 as the continent continues to battle the pandemic.
The Covid-19 digital passport for travellers and airlines will prove that a person has been vaccinated against COVID-19, received a negative test result or recovered from the virus. Ultimately, the passport will reduce delays and long queues for passengers boarding Airlines while also helping to boost the travel and tourism sectors of the continent.
Speaking on the new development, Dr John Nkengasong, director of the Africa CDC, said that partnering with all African airlines will be critical in fighting the spread of the virus.
“The scale of the challenge presented by Covid-19 demands an unprecedented level of both innovation and cooperation, which is why decisions by Kenya, Ethiopia, West and Central Africa to adopt the Trusted Travel platform marks a milestone in the continent’s ongoing fight against this pandemic’s potential to suppress Africa’s development ambitions,” he said.
The new platform can also be incorporated into apps of individual airlines, so air travellers can easily understand what they need before they fly, Dr Nkengasong noted, adding that passengers can now share their test and vaccination certificates through the Trusted Testing Code (TT Code) which shows that the test was done in an approved Trusted Lab.
