New App to Give Real-Time COVID Intel

As borders open up for travel, a US-based company has come up with a game-changing new app called DragonSlayer, which gives both travellers and travel advisors centralised, real-time information on travel restrictions. The app is launching with the reopening status of all the states in the US, but it is also planning to provide information on 124 countries worldwide.

The app will display each destination&rsquos COVID-19 related information such as quarantine protocols, local conditions upon arrival, along with restrictions and case details.

It will help resolve confusion as restrictions and regulations keep changing these days. Users will also get much-needed information about hotels and tourist attractions shutting down, or flights being cancelled at the last-minute.

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&ldquoWe&rsquove seen countries open and then close again. We&rsquove seen Croatia open without testing and then immediately change their mind and say &lsquoyou have to test&rsquo. There are questions around transiting&hellipthese are all questions that travel agents have and those are the answers we put into the app,&rdquo says DragonSlayer&rsquos Founder and CEO, Peter Wells. 

The app will use its SAFE-T (Smart Analytics for Educating Travelers) system to rank destinations and assign them scores between 0-100 scores in terms of their current travel-ability. The app will come in handy as it will be customisable according to users&rsquo individual comfort levels, in which the results will then be filtered through the user&rsquos personalised risk-tolerance filter.

The official app will be launched on September 21, 2020, and will be available on the Play store for Android users, while iPhone/desktop users can register to receive the app&rsquos notification by emailing. 

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Meanwhile, talking about travel apps, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) has announced that the Arogya Setu app&rsquos download is not mandatory for air travellers. The &lsquoself-declaration&rsquo form the flyer fills is sufficient to certify a passenger&rsquos health, AAI has stated. The statement was submitted before a judge as a petitioner challenged the Airport Authority's May 21 Standard Operating Procedure for air travel that stated that all passengers must compulsorily be registered with the Aarogya Setu  app on their mobile phones.