Rako Science, which has a strong working relationship with many travel agents, has asked Parliament to protect the rights of all New Zealanders by amending the bill that gives coercive powers to seize laboratory supplies and requisition services from Covid-19 testing laboratories. 

Rako Science is New Zealand’s largest Covid-19 PCR saliva testing service and in the last four weeks has collected and processed 30,000 saliva tests.

Rako Science has set-up a new sample collection site at the Auckland International Airport terminal.

This comes as Rako Science chief science officer, Dr Stephen Grice announces a new set of features for Rako’s pre-departure Covid-19 PCR saliva travel certificate. The first change is to replace UTC and add NZST into the certificate but to continue to also reference UTC/GMT.

The second change is to add a QR code that can be scanned by customs and immigration authorities to go to the Rako Science verification website so they can check the authenticity of each individual travel certificate.

A familiar face from the pre-pandemic travel industry reconnected with the trade yesterday when Rako Science hosted a function at Olympic HQ at The Cloud in Auckland.

After working for most of this year as a team leader at Covid testing stations, Tracey Brennan is now travel trade manager at Rako Science.

Travel agents will soon have their own trade portal on the Rako website where they will be able book pre-departure PCR tests for clients (and earn commission).

The client then receives confirmation of the time and location for the test,’ explains Brennan. ‘The result and certification is emailed to the client and we can provide a physical certificate if required.’

The company provides a seven-day service, results are provided within 12 hours, and an urgent service (six hours) is available.

Rako Science executive director, Leon Grice says travel agents are an important part of the travel industry. ‘We wanted to make sure that agents are part of the solution.’

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