Victorian shops, venues & businesses could adopt QR codes now to aid COVID contact tracing

Shops, businesses and venues can adopt their own QR code system while they wait for the Victorian Government’s.

A woman scans a QR code to sign into a pub at Zetland, in Sydney’s inner west. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gaye Gerard

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Chris Griffith 11.47am: Victorian businesses don’t need to wait for QR code

The issue of Victoria not yet having an integrated QR code system for contact tracing at shops and venues doesn’t mean businesses can’t implement their own interim one now. It appears to be an easy five-minute job.

Victorian Premier Daniel And­rews has defended the state’s failure to have a QR code check-in system up and running ahead of retail and hospitality businesses reopening. He cited compatibility with the existing IT platform for contact tracing.

Mr Andrews’ new QR code system might have whiz-bang features such being able to feed patron check-in data directly into a contact tracing system, cross-reference it and analyse patterns of growing infection. We’ll see. It may substantially speed up contact tracing and be worth the wait.

Track and trace QR codes are displayed outside a pub, in Manchester, north west England on October 13, 2020, as the number of cases of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 continue to rise. - The British government faced renewed pressure on October 13, after indications it had ignored scientific advice three weeks ago for tougher restrictions to cut rising coronavirus infections. (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP)

However, if the idea is to simply create a register of patrons at any time, and retrieve their name, mobile number and email address in the event someone has the virus, setting up a QR code system is a five-minute job that any Victorian business can do now as an interim measure.

Businesses will at least have a QR code check-in system up and running while waiting for the Victorian Government‘s Rolls Royce version to roll out.

It’s a matter of registering at one of the websites that offers this service for free, or near to free.

Covidtracer.com.au lets you obtain a QR code for your business and quickly set-up a form for collecting customer details. It’s free if you only need one QR code and account. You can export contact details to a .CSV file and hand it over to contact tracers if the data is ever needed. You can monitor who has checked into your premises at any time.

If you need more QR codes, the business version offers you 10 for $10 per month, 50 for $50 per month, and $99 monthly for unlimited codes. These professional versions offer extras such as live head accounts and customisable tracing forms.

Covidpass.com.au similarly offers patron sign-in, but adds a questionnaire about whether they have virus symptoms. The idea is you can screen potential spreaders, at least where symptoms manifest.

It’s a little more expensive: $19.95, $39.95 or $69.95 for small business, medium use and high use, with 5000, 20,000 and 50,000 passes per month respectively, but you can customise screening questions and contact field details, and visitors get a digital pass so you can check they have completed sign-in successfully.

Of course, you can swap across to the official Victorian QR code government system when it comes online, but if businesses are worried about a potential outbreaks in the shorter term, these registration options could prove helpful and you don’t need to resort to the riskier option of pen and paper customer check-ins.