Digital health passport launches in South Africa

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Health Passport Worldwide is a digital platform designed to support the healthcare sector and the safe return of the travel, tourism and events industries. Engineered in Europe by the ROQU Group, the platform combines the latest digital technologies with official Covid-19 tests and vaccinations.

Health Passport South Africa launches with a flagship testing centre which is now open at The Lookout Waterfront in Cape Town, providing both PCR and Rapid Antigen tests.

The app also enables people to quickly and easily receive their test results, and also automatically delivers the certified documents directly to their mobile.

A safe, reliable digital record

As international travel and tourism has dropped by almost 90% in South Africa, the solution provides hope that a better year is coming ahead in 2021. With major sporting events planned, such as The British & Irish Lions Rugby Tour and the Cape Town Cycle Tour, the technology and the testing process now offers a potential solution to enable these major projects to continue.

Robert Quirke, founder of Health Passport Worldwide says: "You can imagine that overnight a global tourism industry closed down, airports - like Cape Town International that sees 11 million passengers a year - shut down, and with a 90% drop in international traffic. This coupled with jobs losses that left families with no hope on the horizon for over a year, spurring the need to get life back on track again."

Quirke adds: "Similarly with the British & Irish Lions rugby tour scheduled to proceed this year, we now have the technology, processes and experience to be able to safely host it here in South Africa, including testing right near the Greenpoint stadium."

Airports and airlines can also scan people’s QR code, similar to a boarding pass, making the entire process streamlined and helps to quickly get planes flying again. Along with testing, the system can also house a digital record of people’s vaccination, making everything easily accessible whenever it is required, eliminating the potential for fraud and fake paper documents, which has recently caused havoc for international borders and airports.

Health Passport Worldwide is currently enrolling Covid-19 testing centres nationwide in South Africa and will support the efficient deployment of vaccinations for people who wish to avail of the service. The app does not track people’s location, does not use Bluetooth, does not use GPS and does not monitor people’s usage of the system. Data is not shared with any third parties.