How the Covid-19 immunity passport on blockchain will eliminate the quarantine

Various technological solutions are foreseen, in particular movement documents and traceability apps, but all of them are vulnerable to fraud and falsification and can have an impact on basic freedoms, be discriminatory or socially unacceptable.

As the coronavirus crisis continues to impact on the lives of citizens and the economies of over 190 countries, one of the challenges facing governments and local authorities is to effectively manage deconfinition and progressive return to normal life, as well as preventing further waves of infection.

The introduction of an immunity passport or other highly protected health document would help manage the health status of the population in real time, respecting ethical standards and protecting personal data while ensuring the issue, use and verification of certified data that is protected and anonymized.

It is in this context that three companies have collaborated to propose the "Covid-19 protected immunity passport", a health passport that will help allow a rapid and safe deconfinition: OpenHealth, French leader in health data management for health authorities officers and stakeholders in industry, research and the general public; the Swiss SICPA group, world leader in the supply of traceability and authentication technologies; Guardtime, provider of KSI ® Blockchain timestamping, the first blockchain-based trust service certified under the EU's eIDAS framework.

The proposed solution aims to issue and manage immunity passports ("Covid-19 immunity passport") which would serve as a basis for real-time monitoring of the immunity status of the population.

The KSI ® Blockchain will make falsification impossible and the immunity data on these certificates will be used by the OpenHealth platform to follow the evolution of deconfining and crisis management, following the model of influenza pandemics.

SICPA's Certus ™ technology, provided to the French government as part of a process initiated by the Ministry of Defense to combat Covid-19, aims to allow all consenting people who have had an approved test to detect viruses or antibodies, to receive a certified by an authorized body that shows the test result, in a digital but printable format, which cannot be falsified and is universally verifiable.

A simple smartphone or computer app is sufficient for verification, even in offline mode, in which all personal data on the person being tested are made anonymous.

The tool is interoperable and works without a central database. In addition, the passport can be updated in real time (creation, expiry, renewal, cancellation) based on the results of medical tests. The rules for use are defined by the appropriate competent authorities.

In addition to allowing the restart of social and economic activity according to conditions established by the state, this technology could also allow public authorities to control access to critical or sensitive structures, such as hospitals and rest homes, schools, government offices, companies and companies, taking into account the residual uncertainties about the virus, the evolution of health policies and the reliability of the tests.

Once implemented, the solution can help health authorities measure the efficiency of the deconfination plan and monitor the progressive acquisition of mass immunity in real time.

Looking beyond the crisis, the immunity passport guaranteed by the blockchain can help prepare better for the future and serve as a tool to manage any new wave or seasonal repetition of the epidemic. It could also be the cornerstone of a future guaranteed digital vaccination record.

The "Covid-19 secure immunity passport" is designed to meet the highest level of protection of personal data, in accordance with the GDPR, thus ensuring both the protection of populations and respect for the right to privacy.