XpresSpa Pursues Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Screening and Testing at U.S. Airports
Print
Alert
XpresSpa (NASDAQ:XSPA)
Intraday Stock Chart
Today : Saturday 4 April 2020
Click Here for more XpresSpa Charts.
XpresSpa Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: XSPA) (“XpresSpa” or the “Company”), today provided an update on recent discussions with local airport authorities and healthcare partners so that it may begin providing screening and testing for novel coronavirus (“COVID-19”) at U.S. airports. COVID-19 screening and testing would be conducted by converting select existing spa locations for this purpose on an interim basis and over time, potentially adding separate, standalone airport locations as testing sites.
XpresSpa’s U.S. airport real estate portfolio consists of 46 locations across 23 airports that are ready to be reactivated and redeployed in short order, subject to the approval of local airport authorities. The Company’s global spas are temporarily closed due to recent local government mandates categorizing its traditional services as “non-essential services”.
Since March 19, 2020, XpresSpa has been advancing discussions with healthcare partners to develop a model for COVID-19 screening and testing in U.S. airports as a much-needed public service. The Company has also recently filed paperwork in the State of Delaware to form a new business unit to administer such screening and testing capabilities, XpresTest, Inc., as a wholly-owned subsidiary of XpresSpa Group, Inc.
While nothing definitive has yet been finalized, XpresSpa is currently in discussions with three major airports, JFK International Airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Chicago O'Hare International Airport to pilot COVID-19 screening and testing for airline employees, contractors and workers, concessionaires and their employees, TSA agents, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents. The Company is also in the process of recruiting a medical director who would work alongside healthcare officials to help design safe and compliant protocols and train employees.
Doug Satzman, Chief Executive Officer, XpresSpa said, “We are moving forward with our public and private relationships to make COVID-19 screening and testing in U.S. airports a reality and hopefully will be able to begin pilot testing shortly for the benefit and protection of our fellow citizens. Since the onset of this pandemic, we have thought that we can and should play a significant role within the travel sector in the fight against COVID-19 and other highly contagious diseases in the future given our airport relationships, infrastructure, workforce with TSA clearance and strong desire to keep everyone safe.”
The Company recently announced its partnership with Relevant Healthcare. Relevant Healthcare is currently offering clinical diagnostic testing for COVID-19 through its contracts with Laboratory Corporation of America® (“LabCorp”) and Quest Diagnostics™ (“Quest”) to support full COVID-19 RT-PCR testing. In addition, the Company is also in active discussions with [Aytu BioScience (NASDAQ: AYTU; “Aytu”)], a specialty pharmaceutical company, and marketer of a COVID-19 IgG/IgM Rapid Test, and [Henry Schein Medical (“Henry Schein”)], the world’s largest distributor of health care solutions to office-based dental and medical professionals, and the developer of the Standard Q COVID-19 test, to deploy their respective rapid antibody blood testing solutions.
XpresSpa would also partner with Healthalytica, LLC (“Healthalytica”), a New York City-based provider of digital health and financial transparency solutions for health plans. Healthalytica would be charged with processing claims, insurance payments and distributing test result data to the appropriate local, state, and national authorities.
In developing its model for COVID-19 screening and testing at U.S. airports, XpresSpa is being assisted by Capstone Municipal Advisors LLC (“Capstone”) who is serving as a project manager. Capstone is an Atlanta-based Minority Business Enterprise (“MBE”) that provides management consulting services and advice to state and local governments in the areas of municipal finance and infrastructure.
About XpresSpa Group, Inc.
XpresSpa Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: XSPA) is a health and wellness holding company. XpresSpa Group’s core asset, XpresSpa, is a leading airport retailer of spa services and related health and wellness products, with 51 locations in 25 airports globally. XpresSpa offers services that are tailored specifically to the busy travel customer. XpresSpa is committed to providing exceptional customer experiences with its innovative premium spa services, as well as luxury travel products and accessories. XpresSpa provides almost one million services to customers per year at its locations in the United States, Netherlands, and the United Arab Emirates. To learn more about XpresSpa Group, visit: www.XpresSpaGroup.com. To learn more about XpresSpa, visit www.XpresSpa.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may contain "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These include statements preceded by, followed by or that otherwise include the words "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "estimates," "projects," "intends," "should," "seeks," "future," "continue," or the negative of such terms, or other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements relating to expectations about future results or events are based upon information available to XpresSpa Group as of today's date and are not guarantees of the future performance of the company, and actual results may vary materially from the results and expectations discussed. Additional information concerning these and other risks is contained in XpresSpa Group’s most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, recent Current Reports on Form 8-K and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements concerning XpresSpa Group, or other matters and attributable to XpresSpa Group or any person acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements above. XpresSpa Group does not undertake any obligation to publicly update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date hereof.
Investor Relations:
ICR
Raphael Gross
(203) 682-8253
ih.advfn.com/stock-market/NASDAQ/...ronavirus-covid-19-screen
XSPA(.22) seeks to support COVID-19 testing in 46 locations across 23 US Airports
XpresSpa Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: XSPA) (“XpresSpa” or the “Company”), today announced that it has reached out to multiple government agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), as well as private laboratories across the country.
The Company has engaged in early high-level discussions with regards to turning all of its 46 airport locations, with many, located in point of entry cities, such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, and Washington DC into COVID-19 testing facilities. The Company believes that its spas offer a range of spaces that can be set up to test airport staff, flight crews, and passengers.
The international airports across the United States are on the front lines of defense for combating entry into the US for people with the Cronavirus. Xpresspa, having locations in all of these key ports of entry is uniquely positioned to help in this fight. As a health and wellness company the majority of its employees are state licensed which includes training in disease containment. In addition, XpresSpa employees are already TSA security approved so they can be trained and deployed immediately.
Doug Satzman, XpresSpa, Chief Executive Officer, said, ”We believe we can we help alleviate some of the long waits for travelers entering the US but we can also be available to test TSA employees, pilots, Flight Attendants and other airport personnel who are on the front lines helping to keep our nation safe.”
Doug Satzman, further stated “As the largest operator of health and wellness spas located within these US point of entry airports, we believe our facilities could be of great utility in helping our government test people as quickly as possible. We will work closely with local airport authorities on all plans. While we cannot ensure that an arrangement will ultimately be consummated, we remain optimistic, that we can play a vital role with some of these entities.”
secfilings.nasdaq.com/...0INC.&FormType=8-K&View=html
-----------------
XpresSpa Announces Partnership with Relevant Healthcare
GlobeNewswire GlobeNewswire•March 25, 2020
Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Testing in U.S. Airports
NEW YORK, March 25, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- XpresSpa Group, Inc. (XSPA) (“XpresSpa” or the “Company”), today announced an update to discussions in converting its spa locations into novel coronavirus (“COVID-19”) testing locations.
XpresSpa will be partnering (the “Partnership”) with Relevant Healthcare Cost Containment®, the registered trade name of Contain Holdings, LLC, an Illinois limited liability company (“Relevant Healthcare”), a Chicago-area healthcare cost containment, payment integrity and transparency company. Relevant Healthcare had previously announced that it is offering testing for COVID-19 (the “COVID-19 testing”) through its contracts with both Laboratory Corporation of America® (“LabCorp”) and Quest Diagnostics™ (“Quest”). Both LabCorp and Quest are the leading laboratory companies in the U.S. and have the current capacity to process tens of thousands of COVID-19 tests per day. All COVID-19 testing will be done by appropriately licensed health professionals in accordance with applicable federal and state laws.
With our global spas temporarily closing due to recent local government mandates categorizing our traditional services as “non-essential services”, XpresSpa is actively advancing conversations with COVID-19 testing partners to develop a model for testing in U.S. airports including point of entry cities such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta and Washington D.C. We have had dialog with the offices of U.S. Senators, Governors, federal authorities and other various agencies to assist in the effort to expedite COVID-19 testing as a much-needed public service.
Our airport real estate portfolio of 46 locations across 23 U.S. airports is ready to reactivate and be redeployed in partnership with local airport authorities in short order.
Doug Satzman, CEO, XpresSpa said, “This is a rapidly developing environment with private and public sectors working in unprecedented ways to partner for the benefit and protection of our citizens. We believe XpresSpa has a significant role to play in the fight against COVID-19 within the travel sector given our airport relationships, infrastructure, workforce with TSA clearance and strong desire to keep travelers and those who work in the airline industries safe.”
When approached by XpresSpa with a potential partnership, Raymond McGaugh, CEO, Relevant Healthcare responded, “I believe this is much needed as the U.S. is mobilizing to implement the first part of the recognized strategy to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, which is mitigation with social distancing, and is rapidly moving to implement the second step of testing for the COVID-19 virus on a mass scale to combat the pandemic. U.S. airports are undoubtedly one of the most important gateway targets with a large population of U.S. airport workers, vendors, TSA security and screeners personnel, airline personnel and, of course, travelers.”
XpresSpa has a significant role to play in the fight against COVID-19 as we, as a nation, become more vigilant in fighting the spread of COVID-19 and other highly contagious diseases in the future. We hope to use our infrastructure and the processes being developed today to work in coordination with the federal and state governments to assist in combating future pandemics.
ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/...levant-healthcare-130010579.html
