Cathay Pacific crew to join trials on rapid coronavirus test in closely watched move that could speed up launch of travel bubbles

Worldwide scramble to find accurate and easy Covid-19 tests to be rolled out quickly across airports, with travel and tourism decimated by pandemic

Health officials will evaluate Hong Kong-based Prenetics’ testing technology

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Cathay Pacific and other airlines have taken a huge hit because of the pandemic. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 10:18pm, 7 Oct 2020Updated: 1:02pm, 20 Oct 2020

A Cathay Pacific Airways flight from Hong Kong to Singapore will take off on Thursday with crew members who have volunteered for a new and rapid Covid-19 test that is still being evaluated, in a closely watched move that could speed up the launch of travel bubbles.

Health officials will evaluate the testing technology provided by Hong Kong-based Prenetics as a wider global effort gets under way to prove that 15-minute screenings for the coronavirus are reliable and affordable, with common digital health passes eliminating the need for quarantine on arrival.

“Rapid and accurate testing at a facility at the airport will be critical for global travel to resume. It will be a prerequisite when we talk about travel bubbles,” said Danny Yeung Sheng-wu, co-founder and CEO of Prenetics.

The company is among others in a worldwide scramble to find accurate and easy Covid-19 tests to be rolled out quickly across airports, with travel and tourism decimated by the pandemic. Airlines have called for mandatory pre-departure tests on international flights to help weed out the threat of imported infections.

Few people are flying because of the public health crisis. Photo: Nora Tam

For Hong Kong, officials have taken on a greater urgency to form travel bubbles and the city has identified 11 countries as viable candidates, including Singapore and Japan.