Unilabs, the European diagnostic services giant has signed an agreement with International Air Transport Association (IATA) to add the services of Unilabs’ worldwide Covid-19 testing network into IATA’s travel pass. With this agreement, Unilabs will become one of the world’s first major lab groups to be associated with IATA’s Travel Pass app. This app makes the process of generating a negative Covid-19 test report easy, safe, and seamless.
Sources say that Covid-19 tests will help in restarting international travel. It is important for travelers to understand the test requirements, locate labs, verify their identity to the lab, and provide their test results to concerned parties such as airlines and the government. IATA’s Director General, Willie Walsh says that their partnership with Unilabs will be advantageous for travelers as they will be able to access the extensive network of the diagnostic giant, which will help to manage their test results securely and efficiently.
With an IATA Travel Pass, travelers can gather information regarding entry requirements and trusted diagnostic labs. It will also help them to arrange for digital certificates for Covid-19 tests or vaccinations.
This collaboration will help Unilabs to securely upload test results in the IATA Travel Pass. These results can then be checked against IATA’s global registry of national health requirements. According to the results, authorities will be able to create an ‘OK to Travel’ status. The app will help passengers to share their status and the digital test certificates with authorities, airports, and airlines.
Michiel Boehmer, the President and COO of Unilabs feels delighted about working with IATA. He says that with the restarting of international travels, IATA is ready to deliver fast, effective, and reliable Covid-19 tests.
The diagnostic giant and the airlines trade association are currently working on a pilot program in the UAE. As soon as the processes are completed, the initiative will be implemented in other entities of the Unilabs network in different countries.
Unilabs not only specializes in PCR tests, but also carries out antigen and serology tests. Since the onset of the pandemic, the diagnostic company has preformed around 10 million Covid-19 tests throughout its network in 17 countries.
