Pop-up contact centres that COVID-19 patients can call to obtain coronavirus recovery certificates could be trailed in Europe, it has been revealed.
Those who have had the virus within the last six months who wish to travel could engage with a contact centre to issue patients with the right to travel abroad.
The Republic of Ireland is one nation keen on the idea after Minister of State Ossian Smyth said those recovered from COVID-19 should avoid contacting their GPs in order to get a certificate to prevent the healthcare system being inundated with enquires.
Now, the Taoiseach confirmed recovery certificates will be available through call centres.
A spokesperson for the Irish government confirmed that a “small number of people” may have to get in touch with their GP, but said the “first port of call” to get the certificate is through a call centre.
This was triggered by confusion after Minister for Tourism Catherine Martin said that those who have recovered from COVID-19 can get in touch with their GP or testing centre for a recovery certificate.
It has since been clarified that Martin was referring to the system that will operate indoor dining only.
In a statement, the Irish government said: “We are now working at ferocious speed engaging with Government in order to deliver operational guidelines for all hospitality businesses across the State.
“The focus is now on developing user friendly guidelines for both businesses, employees and consumers ahead of reopening indoor hospitality.
“More engagement bilaterally with trade representatives on a daily basis. Businesses want to reopen and employees want to return to work safely, securely and viably.”
It comes after Mark Jordan, Managing Director of Five9’s partner, Babble Cloud, revealed the essential changes the travel industry must make in order to grapple with the surge in demand.
He said: “I believe a complete recovery for the travel and tourism industry is going to take some time and we’ll see some areas of airline travel bounce back really quickly and others taking much longer, but failure to ensure that businesses aren’t at the forefront of technology and they’ll face the risk of falling behind competitors.
He also discussed the effect the pandemic has had on a workforce within the travel industry, and the importance of agility in overcoming it.
He said: “The concept of being able to scale your workforce up and down quickly and efficiently, whilst also being able to maintain business standards is going to be fundamentally important – essentially, businesses must reimagine how they work and ensure they deploy the correct technology to support this shift.
“As workforces have moved away from traditional office spaces, there’s now lots of different systems in place that we must interact with, meaning successful system integration will now be key when moving forward.
“Enabling those to talk to each other clearly and efficiently is crucial in terms of making sure that the data integrity is there, as well as allowing the travel sector to learn as much as possible about customers and internal employees too.”
