Albany International Airport in the US has partnered with the State University of New York (SUNY) to commence coronavirus testing for airport employees and passengers.
From 11 December, SUNY will start voluntary testing of the airport’s employees free of cost on a regular basis, subject to final airport board approval.
At a cost of nearly $30, testing for passengers will be available at the end of this month. This facility will allow passengers to test in advance of their flights or just after their arrival.
Arriving passengers will also have the option to buy a home kit for around $60.
The kit will have instructions for passengers to test themselves after day four of their flight, following which they can mail the test to Upstate Medical for examination.
Albany International Airport CEO Philip Calderone said: “Albany International Airport continues to advance its Smart Airport approach to become the first airport in New York State to offer saliva diagnostic testing.
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By GlobalData“Covid-19 testing is an essential step to ensure the health and safety of our workforce and the travelling public and we are grateful to Governor Andrew Cuomo, State University Chancellor Jim Malatras, SUNY Upstate President Mantosh Dewan and Richard Uhlig, CEO of Quadrant Biosciences for sharing their Covid-19 testing knowledge and experience.”
This week, the airport will finish the construction of a testing site and will staff the facility to provide tests to employees.
Tests will be handed out to employees, who may administer it themselves on site.
Thereafter, the collected tests will be sent to the Upstate Medical for analysis.
The expansion is claimed to be made possible by SUNY Upstate’s pooled surveillance testing protocols with a weekly capacity of 200,000 tests.
The New York State Department of Health, as well as the FDA, approved the individual saliva swab test, which was developed by Upstate Medical and Quadrant Biosciences.
In November, Albany International Airport partnered with General Electric (GE) with the aim of making air travel safer in the post-pandemic world.
The airport and GE planned to deploy a range of digital technologies, including advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning.