Covid-19 controls with 'Covidoor': Make access safe and easy

After the 1st "wave" in 2020, COVID-19-related restrictions on public life were lifted step-by-step. For many, this meant a return to everyday life! But one thing was obvious: a new wave of infections could be fatal for health, the economy, and morale. And this despite the fact that Austria's strict shutdown at a relatively early stage had resulted in a relatively mild course of the pandemic.

The key building blocks for this initial success included discipline and personal responsibility by each individual as well as simple yet intelligent systems that reduced risks, ideally without straining the patience of those affected. This is precisely where "Covidoor" came in: With the "Covidoor" health ticket, Netural introduced a new, mobile web service that allowed visitors to large facilities to speed up their entry process.

Tight controls, for example at the entrance to hospitals, were among the most important measures to prevent the introduction and spread of the COVID-19 virus into sensitive areas. "If we want to maintain effective access controls with increasing visitor numbers, things have to move faster than before," says Albert Ortig, Managing Director of Netural. "Traffic jams" would be a source of risk in themselves.

"Covidoor" issued a QR code ticket in advance to those entering. This ticket could then be scanned from a smartphone or paper printout upon entry. "Many are already familiar with this from their boarding pass at the airport," Albert Ortig emphasizes the practical aspect – even for an older audience. Data protection is taken seriously; the system automatically deletes personal information after the ticket expires. The focus is on the responsible self-disclosure of each visitor.

To get a ticket, seven questions had to be answered on the website covidoor.com. Among them were whether people were in contact with an infected person and whether they had symptoms. Covidoor was developed with the support of Dr. Lukas Drabauer, founder of Alpha Medical Concepts, an international management consultancy for high-risk areas in hospitals. "With this information, we separate people who are granted direct access from those who are granted restricted access or are denied entry without further testing." Covidoor thus matches the security of previous security checkpoints manned by security personnel. And on top of that it's available in 13 languages.

From March 2020, a decree banned all visits to hospitals, retirement homes, and nursing homes. The first easing of restrictions came on June 5 with a temporary rule that allowed one visitor per patient per day. From that day, all Upper Austrian hospitals used "Covidoor." Discussions with further healthcare facilities, restaurants, hotels, and cultural, sports, and leisure facilities across Austria were ongoing at the time of this publication.