Covid app verification

[NicoJuicy]

Feature description

Using an external device ( or a PWA) to verify that the a person has installed the covid app ( and if it's running for 1-2 week(s) ) using a QR code.

It would be similar ( but simpler) to how a test QR-Code is generated, but for verification purpose only.

Problem and motivation

We don't know how long we will be in this situation ( September is the current estimation) and if a Covid mutation would cause vaccines to work less, we are back to square 1.

Even then, it's possible that another corona-virus will be circulating someday. Having the infrastructure ready wouldn't be bad.

This could allow business to open and removing restrictions for those that have Covid-app installed. Additionally, ( in a perfect world) the Covid App would be aware when a person is not infected ( ~).

The downside would be that the conspiracy theory of "the app tracks you" would get worse. ( Urgh)

To be honest, the restrictions currently based on businesses are frustrating for me. I don't have any problems with the current situation ( working from home, ...). But I consider myself "lucky".

This would help to normalize the situation a bit. If a local outbreak happens, people can be traced and notified through the app. The verification can happen at stores / places that wouldn't be allowed open otherwise. And politically wise could be enforced ( every business claims to be willing to follow the rules).

I've always been in favor of using the app and reminded multiple people for this. This could lead to a big uptick in usage of the app and making it more useful. As it has another usage outside the observed "battery-drain" ( because people sometimes uninstall it for that reason).

Is this something you're interested in working on

No.

I proposed this in May 2020 internally to my company, but there was no team available to work on it ( who had an overlap in their domain). It was a solution proposed for outside of the Covid app. After internal discussion, they found it very interesting though ( not at first sight).

The dev languages used for the covid app aren't my cup of tea ( i'm mostly dotnet) and would be my biggest bottleneck. I have a angular app for generating QR-Codes ( as POC) for this if interested. Or if it's language agnostic, I can contribute to this feature.

I hope you would at least discuss this internally and see if it does sound interesting.

I'm not in the position to propose this upwards the chain. But as the devs of the Belgian Covid app, you could actually accomplish this by informing the relevant actors :) .