Corona Prevention: Beyond Tracing

In order to relax protective measures to prevent Covid-19, measures are required that keep the risk of infection low despite the relaxation. The implementation of such measures via digitalization enables rapid and scalable dissemination, use and evaluation.

Tracing

The introduction of Bluetooth-based tracing mechanisms with decentralized data storage on the end devices is the right first step - but it is not enough.

Further measures must also take the building into account, as the building

• brings people together in a confined space and

• is itself a carrier of the virus for a certain period of time

and thus supports dissemination in two ways.

Study by the RKI and the Ruhr University Bochum

For example, a joint study by the Robert Koch Institute and the Ruhr University Bochum found that coronaviruses can survive and remain infectious at room temperature for between four and five days on average. Under favorable conditions, they can even be transmissible for up to nine days. Cold and high humidity significantly increase their lifespan.

However, the researchers also found that common disinfectants are effective against the pathogen. Tests with various disinfectant solutions have shown that agents based on ethanol, hydrogen peroxide or sodium hypochlorite are effective against coronaviruses. If these substances are applied in the appropriate concentration, they reduce the number of infectious coronaviruses by four orders of magnitude within one minute - for example, from one million to just 100 pathogenic particles.

Opportunities in digitized buildings

Prevention measures can be implemented easily and sustainably in digitalized buildings. Effective and efficient ways must be found immediately to exploit this opportunity.

In addition to tracing the chains of infection between people using the tracing functionality discussed, it is also possible to, for example

• Measure flows of people in and out of buildings or areas to determine and control the total number of people in a building or area,

• measure the distribution of crowds in the building via presence sensors and, if necessary, bypass or disperse them,

• Identify rooms and work equipment that have been visited or used by persons marked as infected via tracing and then prevent their use or disinfect them,

• determine the occupancy of workstations using sensor technology and use bookings to ensure that only workstations with sufficient spacing are occupied or

• predict possible convection of infected aerosol particles via the structure of air and climate systems.

Thing-IT Virus Guard

Thing-it is already implementing large parts of these approaches in the Virus Guard Feature Suite today, developing them further with competent hardware and software partners and also rolling them out to a broad customer base with powerful consulting and integration partners.