QR codes for better tracking

The municipal medical officers in Kristiansand and Grimstad are the ones who decide who must self-isolate or go into quarantine, UiA’s task is to help identify which courses or groups have been in contact with any possible Covid case.

Use of NOA for Corona-contact tracing:

Download NOA Oppmøte

for iPhone: 

for Android: 

*

First time use:

1. Download ‘NOA Oppmøte’ from AppStore/Google Play
2. Select ‘Logg inn med Microsoft’. Log in with username@uia.no and your UiA password.
3. Press ‘Godta’ to approve the app.
4. Slide the button ‘Personvern akseptert’ to accept privacy policies.

Go to menu and choose ‘Innstillinger’. Select ‘English’.

To check in:

1. Start ‘NOA’
2. Select ‘Check in with camera’
3. Scan the code (or enter code manually)

It is very important that you click on "Log in with Microsoft" and username@uia.no and not ‘student’. Follow the instructions.

You only register once, for further check-ins you just take a photo of the QR code, on the seat or on the door, using the camera in the app.

The data is stored for 3 weeks and automatically deleted.

Proactive approach

UiA has chosen a careful approach. The university is quick to switch to online classes if there is suspicion of possible coronavirus infection in a course. The quick reaction is probably one of the reasons UiA students have been spared outbreaks so far.

We are pleased to see that our students take precautions and are quick to report if they have symptoms, giving UiA the opportunity to react and implement measures. Our students follow the guidelines, use the approved seating marked with green stickers, disinfect their hands frequently and keep distance.

The canteen is where there is room for improvement. It is easy to forget to keep a distance when sitting at a table with friends.

Every seat in auditoria and lecture rooms has its own QR code.

Advantages of using QR codes

Imagine being in a lecture in the largest auditorium. One person who attended the lecture later tests for coronavirus, gets a positive result and is put in self-isolation.

The procedure last semester was to track all the people who were in that particular auditorium and they would all have to self-isolate.

Now, it is going to be possible to track only those individuals who were in the vicinity of the person who tested positive, those within 2 to 3 metres radius. Those individuals will be put in a 10 days’ quarantine. While the rest of the students will be able to come to campus as normal.

The precondition obviously is that everybody uses the QR codes. Those who do not use them, can - in the imagined case -  have to quarantine, unless they can convince the trackers that they did not attend the lecture or that they were seated sufficiently far away from the person who were put i self-isolation.

Any information UiA gives, about who has registered in a course or seating arrangements during lectures, is treated confidentially and only shared with municipal health authorities using secure channels.

Julie Nilsen, Christian Goul and Vidar Moen (left to right) from the Division of Facilituies Management QR marked auditoriums at Campus Kristiansand.