No Test, No Entry: British Companies Develop Mass Testing & Contact Tracing Solution

A consortium of British companies promises that it has delivered an “end to end Covid testing and technology solution,” exactly like the one British prime minister Boris Johnson has asked for in his latest Covid update.

The technology allows venue operators and authorities to trace back infection chains. Buildings can be geo-fenced, so only people who’ve downloaded the passport and taken a Covid test prior to entry are allowed in.

Politicians and promoters alike have been on the record stating, that an easy way to facilitate mass testing for Covid was currently the only way to make live shows return at capacity, ie without distancing.

The consortium is led by Manchester, England-based cyber technology company VST Enterprises (VSTE), which developed the so-called V-Health Passport, a system to identify the passport holder’s health status, as well as a contact tracing app, not to be confused with the UK government’s own app for the purpose.

Aside from VSTE, the consortium of companies includes sports management and rights holder Redstrike, public health and event safety management company Halo and occupational health and testing provider Latus Health.

They presented their technology to Johnson and the department for culture, media and sports, DCMS, “for an end to end rapid covid testing, health passport and contact tracing app solution,” according to the announcement.

Their plan involves “the use of 10-minute rapid test kits, a secure digital health passport that will authorize a persons identity and their Covid 19 test status,” there joint announcement reads.

The built in contact tracing app uses anonymized data to detect positive infection contacts within venues, stadiums and theaters.

As the company informs, the health passport is test agnostic, and works with “all rapid tests and PCR based lab testing.”

All personal information and data is “secure and cannot be hacked. Most importantly the contact tracing app does not divulge a persons identity or information and uses anonymized data,” the announcement continues.

The technology is available as of now, “with a substantial supply chain in excess of 100 million rapid Covid-19 test kits which can be used to get sports fans back into stadiums, music fans back into concert venues and theatre-goers back into the West End.”

Venues can geo-fence their buildings, so only people who’ve downloaded the passport and taken a Covid test prior to entry are allowed inside.

Any positive test results in the wake of an event will notify any and all confirmed contacts automatically that attended the venue on the day. The system can also notify contacts either side of the scanned date of entry up to one week prior or post attendance.

The rapid test and VHealth Passport is priced at £15, and the company currently has 200 testing centers within its app which is expected to rise to over 1,000 testing centers in the next two weeks, according to the announcement.

 

Said Louis-James Davis, CEO of VSTE and inventor of the VHealth Passport as well as the contact tracing app, commented: “We know that whilst social distancing pilots have worked, they cannot be sustained in the long term because of the financial economics of not having fans present. 

“A regime of rapid testing alongside existing PCR based tests is the only way we can progress forward and was in tune with how the prime minister outlined the governments plan for mass testing. This is vital not just for the British economy but our entire way of life.

“Concert venues, sports stadiums, theaters cannot survive much longer without an end to end solution, that is safe and secure from a testing perspective, public health and security and protection of data.”

The reason Davis believes his passport will be better received than the UK government’s own contact tracing app, which the public hasn’t been engaging with on a large scale, is down to incentive: 

“If a music or sports fan or theatre-goer wants to attend an event then they will only be allowed into that venue having taken a Covid 19 test prior to their arrival and their negative test result uploaded to a valid VHealth Passport by a qualified health care professional and scanned upon entry,” Davis explained.