The TT code (Trusted Traveller Code) is a system implemented by the African Union and the African Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (African CDC), in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).§
Approved on 1 December 2020 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, it is in practice a "safe health corridor" and brings together the African countries that are part of the AU under an additional protocol of security for travellers, which requires that the laboratories where the Covid-19 swabs are carried out are part of a secure circuit and that, on the basis of this, they transmit the data of the swab carried out to those who have to leave their country and to those who enter that country, through a bridge to an international system called Global Haven, at the heart of which is a standardised and harmonised testing platform that enables international cross-border travel and trade, as well as business continuity in the face of health disasters and the like, thus creating resilience for the future.
As international travel now takes place in closely connected intercontinental hubs around the world, the system connects travellers with the 'Panabios' APP which was developed by African computer scientists to provide secure, standardised and tamper-proof transcontinental digital services for disease contagion monitoring, spatial risk factor analysis, mass testing, process tracking and results monitoring.
The APP was developed with the support of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University.
In order to obtain this code, which is required on entry and exit from all the African countries involved, it will have to be issued directly by the laboratories connected to the system, which will send an SMS or email with the code, while from abroad it will be necessary to connect to the Panabios link and enter the data of the test taken.
This pan-African re-opening strategy aligned with public health objectives requires a comprehensive public health surveillance system, auditable record-keeping and data analysis to detect, track and contain new cases of infection as trade and travel prepare to slowly return to pre-crisis levels.