Contact tracking
Do I have to have a smartphone to go to a restaurant?
Many restaurant operators now offer solutions such as Darfichrein and Luca
© franz12 / Shutterstock.com
Apps and other solutions should enable contact tracking after restaurant visits. But what if you don’t use a smartphone?
Germany is becoming more and more digital. In many places, solutions are now being used, for example to record the contact details of restaurant visitors so that in the event of a corona infection detected later, possible contacts can be quickly tracked and chains of infection can be broken.
A large part of the people owns smartphones and can offer such as I’m allowed to go in or the Luca app which are often used in restaurants, for example. This allows users to check in quickly on site. The main aim of this is to curb the mess of paper and citizens no longer have to enter their data analogously on a piece of paper. But what about people who don’t use a smartphone?
Can I go to the restaurant without a cell phone?
Bavaria, Hamburg, Baden-Württemberg and Hesse, among others, are increasingly relying on the Luca app for tracking. With the application, users can easily check-in with a QR code in locations that allow this. However, there is no obligation to register in this digital way. As a rule, citizens should still be able to register in an analogue contact form as normal. On the internet portal of the Hessian state government is confirmed, for example: “The use of the Luca app is voluntary, as is, for example, the federal corona warning app. It is still possible to collect contact data on paper. There will be no obligation for digital contact tracking.”
If you do not want to or cannot use the Luca app, there is also an alternative key fob that can then be used to check in. This key fob is “the analog counterpart” to the application and is “intended as a simple alternative for users who do not have a smartphone”, it says, among other things on the app’s homepage. This is also referred to again: “Even without a key fob and smartphone, you can still check in to locations using the contact form.”
Some of these key rings are currently available from the relevant offices in districts or municipalities and will soon also be able to be ordered from the Luca makers’ web shop. In Hamburg, for example, the trailers are offered free of charge to everyone in one of the customer centers in the respective districts. Alternatively, restaurant operators can also check in guest data using their own contact form in the Luca system.
And what about the digital vaccination certificate?
In many places, the whole thing should behave in the same way as with the digital vaccination certificate or corona tests. Users can store their digital vaccination certificate in the Luca app as well as in the Corona warning app and the CovApp. This serves as an alternative to the yellow vaccination booklet to prove on site that you have been vaccinated. Here, too, the whole thing works via a QR code that users can find on a vaccination certificate and then read in using a smartphone camera.
Citizens can apply for this certificate via the vaccination center, in the doctor’s practice or in participating pharmacies. The Federal Ministry of Health confirms on its website: “The digital vaccination certificate is only a voluntary and supplementary offer. If vaccinated persons do not have a digital vaccination certificate or have lost it, the vaccination certificate via the well-known ‘yellow booklet’ is still possible and valid.”
For people who have not yet been vaccinated or who have not recovered who have to present a negative corona test, test centers also partially offer the option of printing out the result of a test. However, smartphone users usually receive test results digitally.