Digital Corona passport developed for free in the North Atlantic:
COVID-19 passport already issued in the Faroe Islands
While many countries are still considering developing a vaccine passport, business people and other travelers from the Faroe Islands are already travelling around the world with a digital COVID-19 passport on their mobile phones. The digital passport documents negative test results,
evidence of antibodies and information on the holder’s COVID-19 vaccination status. Development of the passport has been free of charge for the taxpayers who do not pay for the use of it either.
xx. February 2021
Usually, the Faroe Islands are associated with sheep, salmon and beautiful views. Few people associate the 18 islands which constitute one of Europe’s smallest countries with high-tech entrepreneurship, but this is nonetheless one of the reasons why today this particular part of the North Atlantic is virtually Corona-free.
Status in the Faroe Islands:
Three active COVID-19 cases in total, a population that has been tested on average four and a half times and a community that has therefore re-opened and is largely functioning as normal.
Add into this the Faroe Islands’ COVID-19 passport, which is already available through Apple Wallet. As Faroese business travelers access the digital vaccine passport along with airline tickets and boarding passes in their digital wallets, China and other important export markets have reopened to them.
The Corona passport has been developed in February without any cost for the Faroese state by start- up company Thetis, based in the Medtech-cluster of the Faroese capital Tórshavn. The mere five- year-old laboratory company already pods and tests as part of the well-functioning Faroese Corona contingency and in order to easily distribute documentation of COVID-19 testing and vaccination Thetis developed a digital passport that meets the strict requirements for documentation from national authorities around the world. As digital wallets are used for payments, high security requirements for storing personal information already exist.
The Faroese entrepreneurs are surprised that many other countries have apparently started to investigate the development of complicated solutions when an already implemented and secure solution is imminent. The technical requirements behind the Faroese solution are so simple and inexpensive that other countries could easily copy it in order to quickly start issuing COVID-19 passports.
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You could say that in the Faroe Islands we have developed the answer to what various authorities around the World demand and what Faroese travelers need, while other nations continue to plan to spend a significant amount of money and a substantial quantity of time on something that is not really necessary. Already now, Faroese travelers receive a digital package solution that opens up the world to them, says Head Engineer and chairman of the Board of Directors at Thetis Regin W. Dalsgaard.
The deciding factor in the digital COVID-19 passport is not only information about vaccination but instead that the passport solves the challenge of supplying all relevant documentation. As
vaccinations do not work from Day 1, and as not all countries approve all vaccines, national authorities around the world are expected to continue to demand information about test results and antibodies in order to permit travelers access, explains Thetis CEO Marita Debess Magnussen.
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Authorities require a technically negative RT-PCR analysis, which we perform, and as a new requirement also antibody test. With the COVID-19 passport, you can travel to for instance China and other countries with documentation of negative tests, antibodies and vaccination easily available in your wallet. This is extremely important, because it allows the business traveler to avoid isolation in different countries, says Marita Debess Magnussen.
The IgM antibody tests that Thetis has made available in the Corona passport show whether you have been infected with Corona. Furthermore the passport allows Thetis to add informationon whether the holder of digital passport has received vaccines one and two.
So far, the COVID-19 passport from Thetis is available exclusively in Apple Wallet, but with the next release Thetis plans to make it available in Google Wallet as well, including for Huawei, Samsung and other brands.
For further information please contact:
Mads Hvitved Grand, hört: +298 217087 / thetis@thetis.fo
Contact to Marita Debess Magnussen, CEO of Thetis, and Regin W. Dalsgaard, Chairman of the Board of Thetis, via hört.
Facts about the COVID-19 passport
To gain access to a number of countries, one must have proof of a negative Covid-19 test. This is obtained through a PCR test, which is approved worldwide. In addition, an IgG and IgM test showing antibodies is required.
Along with information on vaccination status, Thetis can provide this directly in Apple Wallet with the COVID- 19 released in February. Data is personal and is retrieved from Thetis’ database after Thetis has performed tests and analyzed the results. In other countries, the solution would be able to retrieve data from a public database with information about, for example, COVID-19 vaccination.
Security measures in Apple Wallet are significant and security clearance and authorization is a requirement for companies or authorities to make data available in the digital wallet, whereas use of old-fashioned paper documents or PDF’s for documentation purposes come with the risk of forgery, copying, etc.
About Sp / f Thetis
Thetis is a Faroese entrepreneurial company based in Tórshavn, founded in January 2016 with the aim of reclaiming primarily microbiological analysis and test assignments from Denmark. The company was launched as an answer to the relatively simple question why the Faroe Islands should ship assignments to Denmark when it was possible to shorten the response time and save the Faroese state and local companies money by having the tests analyzed locally.
Thetis specializes in water samples (drinking water) and food, primarily in fisheries exports. The company is accredited by DANAK; the national accreditation body in Denmark, responsible for accreditation of laboratories and certification and inspection bodies. The employees consist primarily of microbiologists and laboratory technicians as well as nurses, medical students and others responsible for pods and inoculations.
As the first Faroese company, Thetis has received project support from Pfizer for research in streptococcal research with the research project “Pneumococcal serotypes in invasive disease and change in pneumococcal carriage and disease prevalence in the Faroe Islands”. The research funds include a postdoctoral fellow employed under the auspices of Thetis to undertake part of the research.
In 2020, Thetis was named Entrepreneur of the Year in the Faroe Islands. Please find further information at: thetis.fo (in Faroese only)
The people behind Sp / f Thetis
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Marita Debess Magnussen, CEO.
Ph.d. in Microbiology from Háskóli Íslands (University of Iceland) and Master of Microbiology from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, University of London.
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Regin W. Dalsgaard, Head Engineer Chairman of the Board.
Serial entrepreneur, winner of the Entrepreneurship Award in the Faroe Islands in 2009, 2014 and 2020. Sold his first tech company in 2013 and today CEO of the company Globi.
iNova and Thetis
Thetis is housed in Research Park iNova, the Faroe Islands’ Medtech-cluster, where public authorities, private companies and the University of the Faroe Islands have access to state-of-the-art laboratories, equipment, test facilities and collaboration across.
The physical framework is extremely flexible, and Thetis has therefore easily been able to expand its activities on an ongoing basis, including significant upscaling of the company’s activity level during 2020 and 2021 in connection with COVID-19 inoculation and testing. At the same time, Thetis has been able to draw on geneticists from other companies in iNova during the pandemic, so that it has been possible to scale up quickly.
