In its communiqué on 22 April 2021 the Federal Office for Public Health (OFSP) proposes two approaches which are aimed at producing a Swiss solution that will be operational at end May. On the one hand a solution put forward by OFIT (the Federal Office for Telecommunications and Informatics) and on the other a solution jointly proposed by ELCA and SICPA. ELCA and SICPA are proud to take up this challenge in close partnership with the OFSP and the OFIT in order to allow citizens a safe return to normal life.
The ELCA and SICPA solution is based on the expertise of these two companies, whose technologies are already deployed to secure numerous aspects of citizens' daily lives, in Switzerland and throughout the world.
This 100% Swiss solution (which is fully interoperable with solutions to be deployed by other countries) will enable the competent authorities to generate a forgery-proof QR code. This is a unique technology developed by SICPA. The QR code can be stored on a smartphone or in a printed version – both with an equally high level of security - which can then be verified using a simple smartphone. This will greatly facilitate its adoption by everyone in Switzerland and its recognition at border crossings. ELCA’s solutions, in particular HealthnGo, allow this QR code to be used by numerous stakeholders, notably the issuers of health certificates, the entities charged with verification and of course Swiss citizens themselves.
The solution is easy to use and fully respects all the criteria required by the authorities to protect citizens private data. It complies with Article 6a of the COVID Law, protects data and sharing only that which is essential to verification. It does not require access to any centralised database. This avoids any unauthorised access or manipulation. This unprecedented level of security, integrity, confidentiality and traceability has already resulted in adoption by key players in the Swiss health sector and will enable it to be deployed rapidly. The solution also assures rigorous identification of the health service providers who are charged with certifying a health event such as vaccination or proof of a test result, using ELCA’s trustID. This is a solution certified by the Confederation in the framework of Electronic Patient Records.
