Security documentation and printing giant – De La Rue is gaining ground with high hopes for the future as it innovates to use existing authentication technology to provide a way of certifying people that have COVID-19 immunity.
The company is engaging with three different governments about the potential use of its De La Rue Certify know-how to provide a “light touch” way of certifying an individual citizen’s COVID-19 immunity. According to explained Julian Payne, De La Rue Product Director Julian Payne; “We are looking at how existing De La Rue products can be repurposed to help governments in a post-COVID world,” while noting further that; “With our track and trace products we are creating an association between existing datasets. With COVID-19 a test result or vaccination can be uniquely identified, and we can link that together with a code on a government grade holographic label that would be attached to a person’s passport or other identification document.”
De La Rue also said that the certification and verification of COVID immunity status, whether from inherent antibodies or from vaccination, would have “significant societal and economic benefits”, such as a person’s ability to return to employment, domestic and international travel, access to public services, whether further tests or boosters had been taken, and a known status in the case of any future national or regional lockdown. Without correct control and protection, certification would become “an attractive counterfeit opportunity”, the group stated.
This could then be verified by, for example, passport control officials using a simple mobile app (see images below). “De La Rue would not be holding any citizen ID information, so it doesn’t cross any boundaries – we don’t know the person, we just know the test has a number – it’s a nice light touch way of doing it,” he added.
De La Rue: product authentication tech could help citizens prove COVID-19 status
Payne said the technology could be deployed “quite quickly” and in a matter of months, depending on the government and healthcare systems in place at a country level, and predicated upon the availability of “a decent vaccine or test”. Again, the company it was making progress with changes to its Currency portfolio, “and the realignment of its cost base to enable it to become more competitive”.
In all these, De La Rue shares have rocketed after the group posted an upbeat trading update, along with news that it could use its existing authentication technology to provide a way of certifying people that have COVID-19 immunity.
