15-minute immunity test could be rolled out at Melbourne Airport

A company designing a rapid test for COVID-19 immunity says the proposed technology could be “crucial” to resuming international travel.

Travellers would be able to take a test at the airport to check if they are sufficiently immune to COVID-19, under a proposed new technology.

The rapid testing would be collected through finger prick blood samples, with results returned within 15 minutes.

It would determine if they were at risk of being infected with coronavirus or infecting others.

According to the companies proposing the system, it could speed up a return to international travel and help people avoid hotel quarantine.

The testing technology was being pitched to the Australian and New Zealand governments and if approved could be rolled out by July.

The testing program could be in place at Melbourne Airport by mid-2021. Picture Jay Town.

It was under development by New Zealand-based research and development company Orbis Diagnostics and French multinational technology firm IDEMIA.

IDEMIA Oceania managing director Xavier Assouad said talks were underway with health officials in every Australian state and territory, and federally.

Mr Assouad said there was “understandably a process to go through”.

But he said once the first-generation COVID-19 vaccines were widely distributed, immunity screening would become “crucial” to resuming international travel.

Until now, quantitative immunity testing has only been available in medical labs.

Under the proposed model, a single machine at an airport would be able to process up to 30 tests at the same time.

The system would allow countries to set their own thresholds that correlate with their own risk tolerance of immunity.

It will register immunity based on whether the traveller has had the COVID-19 vaccine or been previously infected with the disease.

Orbis Diagnostics chief executive Brent Ogilvie said getting fast and accurate test results would determine whether they were safe to enter their country of destination without quarantining, and without fear of infecting others or being infected themselves.

He said the platform was designed specifically for high-volume and non-laboratory environments, such as airports.

“The process is fast, and once a person’s immunity has been accurately determined, they could bypass quarantine with the assurance there is no substantial risk of causing a fresh outbreak,” he said.

The immunity screening platform was likely to be first introduced to Australian and New Zealand airports as early as mid-2021 before a wider release to the Asia Pacific region.