An artificial intelligence (AI) tool has been developed for aviation industry to predict, monitor and test the health and safety of the workforce from the coronavirus.

Created by Delfin Health and DocHQ, Klarity combines AI-driven health and Covid-19 risk assessments – based on the latest clinical data and guidance for all major chronic diseases – along with daily symptom checking and a proprietary testing process.

Will Cooper, founder and CEO at Delfin Health, said: “Staff with a high or medium risk score will show symptoms upon contracting the virus and will be required to self-isolate and get tested on the onset of these symptoms. Staff with a low score in their assessment will still need to be monitored as they are likely to be asymptomatic upon contracting the virus – otherwise known as super spreaders because they are most likely to transmit the virus.

“Continuous surveillance and symptom checking of all staff is therefore critical. Upon reaching the defined threshold, each crew member would be required to undergo a nurse administered test to determine a positive or negative result. In conjunction with the flight risk score calculations, crew on short-haul flights would be tested every 5-7 flights and crew on long haul flights would be tested every 3-4 flights.”

The solution will help airports and airlines continually address their employees’ anxieties associated with returning to a safe work environment. It offers a personal risk assessment using explainable AI to determine the severity of Covid-19 for each employee or contractor. Each flight a crew member takes, for example, will have an associated flight risk score that is calculated by the number of people on the flight, confirmed cases in the country and region of origin, the duration of the flight and the load factor.

The testing process is guided by healthcare professionals who also interpret the results based on World Health Organisation (WHO) protocols and third party validation including Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) and, where relevant, rapid antibody tests. Clinicians can carry out testing, verify and upload results, as well as organise further follow-up consultations as required.

Cooper added: “Airport staff are core to the operations and management of this industry. They interact with hundreds of passengers on a daily basis, so their safety is critical to minimise delays and potential airport-wide lockdowns. It’s not enough for employers to simply rely on staff using the test and trace government solution which tests only symptomatic people. All preventative measures need to adopted to minimise their exposure to the virus.