Airports & Travel
Keep pathogens grounded
Everyone’s health is connected. Travelers can propel the spread of pathogens, making airports and other ports of entry critical to the global early warning system for biological threats.
Monitoring pathogens at ports of entry provides a dynamic picture of what’s entering the country
Pathogen genomic surveillance – testing samples for dangerous strains of viruses and bacteria – often relies on symptomatic cases identified at hospitals or clinical laboratories. Pathogen monitoring at ports of entry is a proven model for early warning. Sampling asymptomatic travelers as they enter a country (or sampling the wastewater from aircraft lavatories) can help public health leaders catch and characterize emerging threats earlier than traditional surveillance approaches.
By studying pathogens as they arrive, experts can gain vital lead time to learn how new variants behave. The head start empowers officials to devise countermeasures and strategies to help mitigate public health impacts. Sharing insights and solutions across a global network helps provide a more complete picture and amplifies the world’s ability to proactively fight infectious disease.
Testing at
7 airports
JFK, EWR, ATL, SEA, IAD, SFO, and LAX
Monitoring flights from
~30 Countries
as they arrive in the U.S.
More than
80k participants
have volunteered samples
Multi-modal pathogen detection
Samples are taken from volunteer travelers and/or aircraft wastewater, then sent to a lab for PCR testing.
Viral variant sequencing & bioinformatics
Positive samples from surveillance tests undergo viral genomic sequencing to identify novel variants, track variants of concern, and help predict outbreaks.
Data analytics & reporting
Secure digital dashboards report key testing information (positivity rate, variant trend analysis, bioinformatics insights, etc.) to health authorities.
As risks evolve so can our platform
The COVID-19 pandemic showed how unpredictable biology can be. Our platform can adapt to changing needs around biological risks, pandemic preparedness, and open travel. Leaders can be flexible, targeted, and responsive with their monitoring strategy, adjusting test modalities, pathogen targets, and sampling sites as needed.
The premier in-airport COVID-19 monitoring program
Concentric and XpresCheck are working with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Traveler-Based Genomic Surveillance (TGS) program to detect COVID-19 and flu variants that could be introduced into the U.S. by international travelers. The data we gather through the TGS program serves as a kind of radar for emerging biological threats. But the program’s real power is its ability to pivot as the risk landscape shifts.
At the onset of the Omicron outbreak in late 2021, the Atlanta location was established in just 24 hours to capture new incoming flights. When international surges called for more west coast coverage in January 2023, we rapidly brought testing to the Seattle-Tacoma and Los Angeles airports.
With the ability to acquire statistically significant distribution of samples from around the globe, the TGS program sequenced the first instances of Omicron BA.2 and BA.3 in the U.S.; contributed to the sub-lineage designation of BQ.1.1; and has been among the first in the country to identify BA.2.75.2, XBB, and CH.1.1. The public-private partnership can be a model for innovating sustainable public health solutions.
The mark ‘CDC’ is owned by the US Dept. of Health and Human Services and is used with permission. Use of this logo is not an endorsement by HHS or CDC of any particular product, service, or enterprise.