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Corona passport: The key to sustainable recovery from the pandemic
Given that the pandemic is far from over and we have to learn to live with the reality of variants, we need to find ways to keep our global societies and economies functioning in a sustainable way. At Netcompany, we are committed to help do that. In 2021, we have used our Govtech framework to develop digital platforms that have allowed governments in Denmark, Norway, Scotland and England to monitor and control the ongoing pandemic.
"The COVID-19 pandemic has posed an unprecedented challenge with far-reaching impacts on public health and all aspects of our life, society and business. Swift and effective actions were required to fight the spread of the virus and mitigate the impact. Following the successful award by NHSX after a competition, Netcompany was entrusted to be the partner to develop a digital COVID Pass solution. Together with NHSX, in a collaborative team effort, the digital solution was launched successfully to protect public health, supporting a safe reopening of society and enabling a quicker return to a usual everyday life."
— NHSX
In 2020, we created two platforms to support the Danish people during the height of the pandemic.
The first was COVIDmeter – a platform where people completed a digital questionnaire about the condition of their health on a weekly basis, which enabled health authorities to track the spread of the virus. It launched in June 2020. In an average month approximately 120,000 questionnaire completions are made, helping Danish health authorities understand the spread of the disease and make informed decisions on how and when to reopen the country.
Our second platform was the SmitteStop app, a mobile phone app for COVID-19 contact tracing based on Bluetooth technology. The app allowed people to report if they have been infected with COVID-19, enabling health authorities to notify people they have been in contact with anonymously. More than 2,376,4622 people in Denmark have downloaded the app, and the version we developed to support people in Norway has been downloaded 1,087,000 times3.
Creating a coronavirus passport to reopen global societies
The next step in helping people live with coronavirus was to find a sustainable and safe way to reopen societies, businesses and borders. More and more venues wanted proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test result before allowing people to enter, so they needed the right tools to help them to do that. Proof of vaccination was also needed to travel to many countries. Each country sets its own rules about reopening their businesses and borders – which can change frequently.
Fortunately, we designed our Govtech platform to adapt to exactly those sorts of challenges. And in 2021, we used it to develop the ‘Corona passport’ – an efficient, secure and scalable suite of solutions designed to support the safe reopening of societies, businesses, workplaces and cultural venues, as well as safeguarding international travel.
The flexibility of the framework means we can tailor each ‘passport’ to serve the needs of the organisation that needs it without compromising ease of use or security. For example, we can use it to create tools that help border authorities check travellers’ vaccination certificates at ports, or to help people prove their COVID-19 test results.
The Corona passport is already making a huge difference to people in Denmark, Norway, Scotland and England. It helps to reduce queues to enter venues; it provides a secure method of proving COVID-19 test results and vaccinations while preventing forgeries; and it enables people to safely travel to other countries and return home again.
Over the past two years, the world has seen many waves of the COVID-19 virus, so we need to be prepared to respond quickly to urgent needs.
The flexibility of our passport means we can adapt it to support new challenges as they may come. For example, if health authorities decide to offer people a booster dose of the vaccine we would be able to quickly update the passport to support that initiative.
Thanks to its flexible design, we are confident that our passport can help governments, people and societies continue to navigate the pandemic in a sustainable way.
1 Netcompany, October 28, 2021
2 Netcompany, October 28, 2021
3 Netcompany, October 28, 2021
