On its website, the Regional council points out that the coronavirus is a notifiable pathogen within the meaning of the Infection Protection Act: "In order to slow down the infection process, various measures are taken which affect you as an infected person. On the one hand, isolation at home is ordered, which is delivered as a written order by the public order office.

On the other hand, the District Health Office investigates persons who may have contracted the disease from those affected. "According to the Infection Protection Act, you are obliged to inform the District Health Office of the persons with whom you have had contact. We are providing you with this online form for this purpose," says the note to the form.

After the information on data protection, one makes a declaration in advance that all information has been provided truthfully and that one is aware that false information can be punished as an administrative offence with a fine of up to 25,000 euros. Furthermore, the persons concerned give an assurance that the corona virus Sars-CoV-2 has been detected in them by means of a PCR test. This means that a laboratory-confirmed result after a throat or nose swab counts.

Then the patient first enters his or her personal data and the case ID. This number can be found in the administrative order if it has already been delivered.

The system then asks for symptoms and the date of the smear. "It can be assumed that you, as an infected person, were able to infect other people two days before your symptoms began. If you do not have symptoms, the date of the smear is important, and we assume that you were able to infect other people two days before the smear was taken," says the explanation.

On the following pages, the facilities, the home contact persons and other contact persons are then entered. The best way to do this is to keep a contact diary and make sure you have the telephone numbers of the people you meet in person.

Original text: Bettina Köhl. Translation: Mareike Graepel