The UK’s leading travel hub, Heathrow Airport, trialled a new Covid-19 test, “FRANKD with Yoti”.
The test was administered on-site, with results shared in 30 minutes to people’s email, or their phone using an app from Yoti. The 2 week trial with employees was designed to help Heathrow better understand how to deliver large scale testing of passengers, which totalled a record 80.9 million in 2019.
The FRANKD RT-LAMP mouth swab test has been verified independently to deliver leading accuracy with specificity of 100% and sensitivity of 97%. It identifies the coronavirus and states if someone is currently infected or not. FRANKD carries the European CE regulatory mark and is created by GeneMe, an award-winning biotech company based in Gdansk.
The FRANKD test can be administered when departing from or arriving into the airport and the use of Yoti makes the capture and sharing of results simpler and faster. With 8 million downloads, Yoti is an award-winning digital identity app that helps people verify and share personal details while protecting their privacy.
People add their FRANKD result to their phone by scanning a unique QR code that is attached to each test. Once the test is complete, the result appears on their Yoti and can be shared online and in person, in seconds. Yoti is already trusted by organisations including the NHS, which securely issues digital ID cards with the app.
FRANKD test results can also be shared to an individual’s email without the Yoti app. Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said “Testing is the lifeline that the UK’s aviation sector needs to get back on its feet. We’ve put some of the most cutting-edge rapid testing technologies into action at Heathrow to see which offers the best solution. If we can find a test that is accurate, gets a result within a matter of minutes, is cost-effective and gets the Government green light, we could have the potential to introduce wide-scale testing at the airport.”
“Every passenger travelling through Heathrow would have the confidence to know the airport is COVID-free, boosting demand and getting Global Britain back to safely trading and travelling with the world again. Without this, our first class aviation sector risks becoming second class, giving Britain’s competitive advantage to others.”
FRANKD uses a patented enzyme and compact real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) machines to deliver accurate results in just 30 minutes. Tests can be administered and analysed on-site and without the sizable laboratory and logistical resources required to manage and process tests externally, which can take days.
Kasjan Szemiako CTO of GeneMe and developer of FRANKD said: “We are thrilled to see FRANKD trialed with Heathrow. We expect FRANKD with Yoti will help create fast effective testing and Safe Spaces all over the world. Many sectors including healthcare, pharmacies, hotels, airports, factories and corporates and smaller businesses all need accurate, fast, on-premise testing. We have partnered with Yoti because their digital ID app is secure and cannot be spoofed.”
Robin Tombs, Co-founder and CEO of Yoti added: “We’re delighted to be trialling our game-changing FRANKD with Yoti solution with Heathrow, which is paving the way for travel and wider sectors to get back to work, travel and play. FRANKD with Yoti makes testing faster, simpler and safer with reduced contact in the testing process and a fast, spoof-proof way for people to share their results.”
Yoti is designed to prevent tracking people and sharing user data without their consent. Anti-fraud measures are built into its reusable digital ID, making it a modern solution that combats document and ID fraud. Yoti is available in 6 languages, accepts passports and photo IDs from over 195 countries and uses NIST approved technology, making it a global identity solution that’s perfect for seamless travel experiences.