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Possible exit from the lockdown

Cologne consortium works on Covid 19 passport

Hendrik Geisler, www.ksta.de

Cologne, Germany, April 16, 2020 – How can living with the coronavirus succeed without also suspecting an infected person behind every person you meet? Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates recently presented the development of a digital health certificate as a solution to this problem during a question-and-answer session on the Reddit platform. With its help, a person could, for example, prove whether he or she has already survived Covid-19, recently tested negative for the virus or been administered a vaccine. Just a few weeks after Gates’ comments, a Cologne-based consortium – consisting of Cologne University Hospital, the city’s public health department, a handful of companies and Germany’s largest corona testing laboratory – completed the development of such a certificate.

The aim of this solution is to provide incontestable medical proof of a negative test or a vaccination in order to be able to board an international flight with immunity, for example, or to visit relatives in a care facility again – in other words, a digital passport that provides reliable information about health status. On the one hand, this proof can be used in a standalone app or web-based application, documenting every step from a visit to a doctor’s office at the first symptoms to the final result. On the other hand, the information should also be able to be shared with other IT systems via simple interfaces in a privacy-friendly manner.

“Step-by-step exit from lockdown”.

“The consortium offers a suitable solution for the step-by-step exit from the lockdown for the Cologne region, but also for all of Germany and even for Europe,” says Ines Manegold, managing director of the Cologne-based Digital Health Germany association.

Several member companies have taken a central role in the work on the “Digital Corona Health Certificate”: m.Doc is a specialist in digital patient communication, Healex prepares health data for research, Ubirch guarantees the unforgeability of data via blockchain technology. The Boston Consulting Group and the airline subsidiary Lufthansa Industry Solutions are also involved.

With its participation, Bundesdruckerei ensures that pseudonymized data can be assigned to identities beyond doubt. And with the Cologne University Hospital and the Dr. Wisplinghoff laboratory, which carries out thousands of Corona tests every day, important partners with patient contact are on board.

“A piece of normality”

Rainer Minz, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Cologne University Hospital, calls the certificate a solution for a “smart lockdown.” In other words, a daily routine in which contact bans are partially lifted, in which, for example, travel is again permitted under certain conditions, but care must still be taken to ensure that the spread of the virus does not pick up speed again, but that chains of infection are quickly uncovered and infected persons are isolated. “The certificate helps to regain a bit of normality,” Minz says.

Meanwhile, the Cologne group is exchanging ideas with the consortium that is currently working on the Corona app, which should soon be able to uncover chains of infection. In this app, the Corona Digital Health Certificate could fulfill an important function by lending credibility to reports of infections.

The fact that German university hospitals largely use the same IT systems, meaning that an interface would only have to be programmed once rather than many times, could also help to spread the certificate further.

Participants work pro bono

At present, the parties involved are still working pro bono, but there are already talks about project support from the state, the federal government and the European Investment Bank, says Minz.
Next Monday, the certificate will undergo its first endurance test: Then, for the first time, patients in the laboratory and the university hospital will be provided with proof of every step of their testing process. The initial goal is to connect all of Cologne’s clinics, says Minz. The municipal clinics and those of the Cellitinnen have already signaled their willingness, he says.

At present, the parties involved are still working pro bono, but there are already talks about project support from the state, the federal government and the European Investment Bank, says Minz.
Next Monday, the certificate will undergo its first endurance test: Then, for the first time, patients in the laboratory and the university hospital will be provided with proof of every step of their testing process. The initial goal is to connect all of Cologne’s clinics, says Minz. The municipal clinics and those of the Cellitinnen have already signaled their willingness.