Using the new NHS COVID-19 app – information for managers and staff
24 Sep 2020
App available from today and QR codes need to be generated for some areas of campus
As part of our University’s commitment to keep all staff and students safe we are requiring everyone on campus to download the NHS COVID-19 app which launched today.
The app has a number of tools to protect people, entirely anonymously, including contact tracing, local area alerts and QR venue check-in. It also features a symptom checker and test booking.
With the launch of the app is a legal requirement to implement the use of the NHS Test and Trace QR venue check-in. This is an important new way to control the spread of the virus and includes several areas on campus where staff, students and visitors must use the codes to ‘check in’.
We need the help of Faculties, Schools and Directorates and the managers of those areas to generate QR codes and display them. Generally, areas that require a QR code are those not covered by timetabling or other booking systems, where students are likely to work or socialise.
These areas are:
- Shared study spaces
- Computer clusters
- Social spaces
- Library study spaces
- Places of worship
- Food retailers
- Students’ Union shared/social spaces
- Cultural Institutions
- Shared space in Halls
- Sports facilities
Student presence in other areas will be recorded using methods including timetabling (Syllabus Plus and access control) with data being provided to the NHS Test and Trace teams if a positive case of COVID-19 is identified on campus.
In conjunction with the Campus Reopening and Corporate Support Group, local teams are responsible for implementing and displaying QR posters in their area, and decisions on the size of an area should be taken by managers. The smaller an area that can be covered by a QR code, the better – coding whole buildings or floors must be avoided where possible. In an open space, for example, a single code could be used for a cluster of desks/seating spaces.
You create a QR code on the Government website. Use your own work email addresses and phone numbers. If you are contacted by Test and Trace then please immediately direct them to coronavirus-info@manchester.ac.uk who are coordinating our response.
Posters should be displayed inside the room/space to avoid queues building up outside and in a visible and safe position, to make sure they cannot be easily removed. Visitors will then be able to scan the poster to check-in.
This system will be in place from Thursday, 24 September so please ensure that you prepare your areas as soon as possible and use the app. Students and staff may also wish to use the SafeZone app. This does not replace the NHS app but has additional features.
We require all staff and students who are able to download it to do so, but we are aware that some people may not have a compatible smartphone. The more people who use the app, the more effective it will be – and it will help us get ahead of the virus, preventing further local lockdowns, and further disruption to the economy.
QR codes are an additional measure over and above the apps’ Bluetooth tracing which will alert people if they have been in contact within 2m for greater than 15 minutes.
If you are a staff member, working on campus, who tests positive, or has self-isolated for any of these reasons, you must follow the process outlined on StaffNet.
Thank you all for your help and your continued cooperation to stop the spread of the virus and protect each other.
Professor Nalin Thakkar
Vice-President for Social Responsibility and Chair of Corporate Support and Campus Reopening Group.