Connectivity to laboratories / Transfer of QR code / QR code not working

[SebastianWolf-SAP]

We received the feedback from the following entities:

• Apple App Store ratings
• Google Play Store rating
• Hotline employees through Slack

that since 28.07. test results cannot fetched through the app.

This means that the QR code does not work, or that the user does not receive a test result even though that the user informed the doctor or health agency multiple days ago.

Open questions:

• Are the not functional QR codes or codes which cannot be used anymore? How many of these are currently on the market?
• Is there a problem with the server?
• Why are no results coming back or so much delayed, even though the user entered them successfully?

To everybody having the same problems: Please report such errors as comments to this issue. Thanks!

---

Internal tracking ID: EXPOSUREAPP-2403

[daimpi]

I was just asked to post the experience of a user who encountered this issue:

They were tested on the 30.07. and got a sheet with a QR Code that specifically stated, that the QR Code is meant for the CWA. On the 05.08. they got their (negative) result via snail-mail, while the app still shows "results pending".

Their device:

• Samsung A 40, Android 10
• CWA 1.1.1

Here is the Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/ChrisHinri4/status/1291103825076649985

[thomasaugsten]

What is the exact name of the app stated on the paper. Corona-Warn-App or Covid19-App
What is the testing lab?

[thomasaugsten]

Here an example from the KBV

https://www.kbv.de/media/sp/02_Erlaeuterungen.pdf

[daimpi]

Just saw this article in the Ärzte Zeitung, maybe this is related?

What happens in such cases? Do users still get QR Codes, but the laboratories will never submit their results? Or are those users not getting a QR code in the first place?

[daimpi]

I got feedback from another person on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Topf_Sigrid/status/1291410706873692164
They got tested and later got their result via phone, while CWA still shows "result pending".

• Family with 4 Android phones all using CWA 1.1.1
• They definitely got CWA codes, I will forward you a photo of their sheets they send me via mail (for privacy reasons)
• I will also send you their lab location via mail (for privacy reasons)

I don’t know when exactly they got tested and when they got their result via phone. I’ve asked them and will update as soon as I get an answer :).

Update: They did their test on the 04.08. and got their result via phone on the 06.08.

[thomasaugsten]

Thanks for your help and of course a statement that they really saw that point 9 was checked on the Auftrag für Testung to allow the lab to send the result via qr code.

[daimpi]

Whether or not this box 9 was ticked in their case is not something those ppl could find out retroactively by looking at the documents they got, right?

[thomasaugsten]

This is correct the upper part is send out to the lab. They need to remember if the doctor ask them and he marked it or they marked it

[daimpi]

Puh ok… I'll ask them but I doubt that anyone would remember such a detail tbh…

[daimpi]

They don't know whether or not this box was checked by their doc. They were in a separate room while the paperwork was done in another room. They only got the sheets of which I sent you a photo by mail.

[thomasaugsten]

To my mail ?

[daimpi]

I sent it to corona-warn-app.opensource@sap.com should I re-send it to your address as well?

[thomasaugsten]

This would be faster thanks

[daimpi]

done :)

[thomasaugsten]

Thanks looks good. Can the user provide information about the test lab?

[daimpi]

They gave me the city of the lab which I also included in this mail, do you need more specific information?

[thomasaugsten]

Thanks this was very helpful. It is unfortunately that they not attending while the first part was filled out.

[daimpi]

It is unfortunately that they not attending while the first part was filled out.

Yes ik.

I fear most ppl will not bother with those intricacies and if we're unlucky docs might not tick this box and users will simply register this as "app is not working" as it keeps showing "pending results" indefinitely.
Is there maybe a way to get a message to users if their box 9 was not ticked which would inform them that their test will be processed, but their result will only get to them via phone/mail? I'm thinking of something like changing the status of their test from "pending" to something like "Testresult will come by phone because …".

[daimpi]

Just a quick question: if a lab is not fully connected to the system (like the ones talked about in this Spiegel article), the patients will not get QR Codes for CWA in the first place, right? Because if not properly connected testing stations would give out QR Codes, it's no surprise that those don't work.

[kira99]

@daimpi As we discussed on Twitter: We (three family members) were tested on August 4th, no results available, yet. We scanned QR Codes with 2 XIAOMI Androids and an iPhone XR. Sometimes I get errors with "Test aktualisieren". See corona-warn-app/cwa-app-android#984 and corona-warn-app/cwa-app-android#968 (comment)
Unfortunately we do not know, which lab was involved. Monday morning I am going to phone the hotline provided in the FAZ article to find out. Unfortunaly we do not know either, whether we checked Box Number 9 in the form.

[daimpi]

@kira99 thanks for sharing. I just want to add some more things from our twitter thread which might be helpful :)

You said that you filled out the form according to a template which was provided there, right? The station where you got tested was "Rastanlage Donautal-Ost an der A3 bei Passau" (link), maybe someone could get a copy of the template they used, to check whether or not box 9 is ticked there?

[kira99]

@daimpi I found somebody on Twitter, who has been tested on Friday 31st of July in Donautal Ost and does not have her result, yet. I asked her whether she ckecked box 9 in a private message and she told me, she did check it. https://twitter.com/JuleRiede/status/1291373882704879616?s=20

[daimpi]

@kira99 thanks for the info :)

That speaks against my hypothesis that unticked box 9 is the main culprit. One thing I'm additionally curious about: there should always be a second line of notification via phone call or snail-mail: corona-warn-app/cwa-app-android#960 (comment).

So I'm wondering: why is this 2nd line of notification not working? For someone who did their test on the 31st July the results surely must exist.
When did you do your test btw? And did you leave a phone number/address at the test station so they could contact you?

[kira99]

Our Test was on August 4th.This is why I am going to phone the hotline mentioned in the FAZ article tomorrow. Read this: https://m.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/gesundheit/coronavirus/corona-tests-in-bayern-fuer-reiserueckkehrer-oft-nutzlos-16895169.amp.html
It is another possility.

[daimpi]

Oh wow, what a mess…

Yes that faz article actually seems to be the most plausible explanation for the issues you were experiencing. If they even mess up assigning results to patients it's no surprise that CWA will not show any results.

[kira99]

@daimpi Actually we filled in two forms. One was the one with the QR Code and the second one was for our home adress and our holiday destination. Even if they lost the one with the home address they could still submit the result to CWA.

[daimpi]

I see.
So the question now becomes how/where exactly they messed up, fun 😅

[annebeckmann]

I would like to add a process issue and solution that I did not find represented here:
It may solve the problem, that leads to currently 38% of CoronaWarnApp-Users NOT sharing their test results.

The form 10c / OEGD of the Kassenärztliche Vereinigung (KBV) does not take into consideration, that most PCR-Tests of infected pationts are carried out OUTSIDE the medical practice. This leads to a situation that consent is systematically not communicated on the form.

Potential Solution:

If there is anything wrong with my description, I would be glad to understand this. I have written this to KBV several times, but they either don't understand me or don't seem to take it seriously. This is completely incomprehensible to me, because on average 48 people die every single day because of this.

(Among these people, there may be one or two who really don't want to give their consent, but the likelihood of people using a warning app to NOT warn other people is pretty low, isn't it?)

Any further questions? Please do not hesitate to ask.

PS: Here the official requirement (by the Bundesregierung) , that people thinking that they might be infected are NOT allowed to enter the medical practises.

[Ein-Tim]

Mirroring what I've already said in corona-warn-app/cwa-wishlist#150 (comment) so that it doesn't get lost:

It may solve the problem, that leads to currently 38% of CoronaWarnApp-Users NOT sharing their test results.

The 38% of test results that are not shared are already correctly arrived in the app, so the field on the formula 10c/OEGD was marked.
These 38% actively decided against sharing their test result, although they were able to.
See also this comment.

[annebeckmann]

Thank you Ein-Tim. That does actually makes sense, bcause the consent on the form 10c/OEGD allows laboratories to pass the data on to the CWA. Failing to tick that box (by the med. assistant) would result in no data being passed through to the APP and therefore could not be charted by RKI.
That would mean, that the amount of people we lose by the doctor not ticking the consent box on 10c/OEGD , described in my post would have to be added on top of the 38%, (in terms of loss of efficiacy) correct?
In this respect, I would be interested in a quantification of how often this occurs. I have personally done training sessions of the Corona Warn App in 118 school classes in the district of Borken. (As part of an educational project about Corona) In about half of these, we were told of problems where the parents said that the CWA did not work because they could not scan the barcode. After enquiring, this was divided into 2 main causes:

1. the consent box was not ticked for reasons described above.
2. it was scanned with the wrong scanner.

(There were also some hardware related issues, but we did not follow up on those.)
Some parents later described that they had first tried to scan the barcode with the normal QR code reader. When that didn't work, they read the small print in the clarification, it says that they should scan with the camera function of the smartphone, so they opened the camera, but of course it doesn't work either. The form should really state that they should scan the barcode with the CWA.
I guess a large proportion of users drop out at this point, give up and think that the CWA is not functional.

The users who have overcome this problem then make the error described above, namely that they scan the barcode with the CWA, but the data were not transferred from the laboratory because the doctor's assistant failed to tick the consent box when taking the test. (Without the patient knowing this, because he assumes, because he has received the lower black and white information part of the form, that he has consented).
Here, too, the USER gets the impression that the CWA does not work.

We will not be able to record how often the first error (scanning with the wrong scanner) occurs, because the error message remains local (https://localhost/?041F94-66773ADE-09DB-45C7-BF73-3122FE7E4C30 --> Website not reachable, localhost has refused the connection, check the connection" This is what an error message looks like, for example). It would be helpful if there could be a note: "Please use the CWA to scan the barcode" but that probably is not possible?

It should be possible to estimate the frequency of the second error by evaluating how often a barcode was scanned with the CWA although no data was transmitted from the laboratory, minus those for which laboratory data was later supplied. (In order to exclude time lags as a cause).
This number indicates how many people tried unsuccessfully to retrieve a test result, thinking that they had consented to the transfer of data on the 10c/OEGD form. Is this correct? If so, can this data be requested from the RKI?

[Ein-Tim]

@annebeckmann

That would mean, that the amount of people we lose by the doctor not ticking the consent box on 10c/OEGD , described in my post would have to be added on top of the 38%, (in terms of loss of efficiacy) correct?

Yes, correct.

It would be helpful if there could be a note: "Please use the CWA to scan the barcode" but that probably is not possible?

I'm not sure wether this would be possible.
A related reuest is: corona-warn-app/cwa-wishlist#224

This number indicates how many people tried unsuccessfully to retrieve a test result, thinking that they had consented to the transfer of data on the 10c/OEGD form. Is this correct? If so, can this data be requested from the RKI?

A similar question was asked here & answered here.
Maybe the situation in the meantime changed with the data donation feature and the RKI can make an exact number of test result which were added to the app but never returned public?
Although with this it's not excluded that technical problems, etc. are responsible for the incident and to the unticked 10C/OEDG field.

[ndegendogo]

the amount of people we lose by the doctor not ticking the consent box on 10c/OEGD , described in my post would have to be added on top of the 38%, (in terms of loss of efficiacy) correct?

Yes. The whole procedure was designed under time pressure and unfortunately has too many points of failures ...

It would be helpful if there could be a note: "Please use the CWA to scan the barcode" but that probably is not possible?

Usually QR codes encode the URL of a website, and a generic QR code scanning app will open this website. Same for the camera. The cwa solution was designed differently, they wanted to enforce that only cwa can meaningfully scan this code, for security and data privacy reasons. So they use 'localhost' plus a long number instead of a website URL. The QR code itself contains no hint to cwa. So the QR code scanning app can decode this number but cannot give any hints to the user how this QR code is meant to be used.

[olife-source]

QR Code is not accepted from freepass to receive test result automatically

We received the feedback from the following entities:

• Apple App Store ratings
• Google Play Store rating
• Hotline employees through Slack

that since 28.07. test results cannot fetched through the app.

This means that the QR code does not work, or that the user does not receive a test result even though that the user informed the doctor or health agency multiple days ago.

Open questions:

• Are the not functional QR codes or codes which cannot be used anymore? How many of these are currently on the market?
• Is there a problem with the server?
• Why are no results coming back or so much delayed, even though the user entered them successfully?

To everybody having the same problems: Please report such errors as comments to this issue. Thanks!

Internal tracking ID: EXPOSUREAPP-2403

QR Code

We received the feedback from the following entities:

• Apple App Store ratings
• Google Play Store rating
• Hotline employees through Slack

that since 28.07. test results cannot fetched through the app.

This means that the QR code does not work, or that the user does not receive a test result even though that the user informed the doctor or health agency multiple days ago.

Open questions:

• Are the not functional QR codes or codes which cannot be used anymore? How many of these are currently on the market?
• Is there a problem with the server?
• Why are no results coming back or so much delayed, even though the user entered them successfully?

To everybody having the same problems: Please report such errors as comments to this issue. Thanks!

Internal tracking ID: EXPOSUREAPP-2403

[dsarkar]

Hi @olife-source, thanks for reporting here. Regarding the integration of freepass, can you report this case by mail to corona-warn-app.opensource@sap.com, please. Please provide a scan of the information sheet with the QR code as well as contact information of the doctor or test center where you received it. All non-essential personal data should be blacked out. We will then try to resolve QR code generation issues together with the involved parties.

Best wishes, DS

---

Corona-Warn-App Open Source Team

[Ein-Tim]

See also: https://www.coronawarn.app/de/faq/#qr_test or/and https://www.coronawarn.app/de/faq/#qr_scan

[ndegendogo]

Today I got a PCR test from my doctor, and a white sheet with a QR code.
However, the QR code is only to the lab website.
The lab is Labor Augsburg MVZ.
The QR code decodes to: http://labor-augsburg-mvz.de/corona-virus-pcr-ergebnis/xxxxxx
with xxxxxx being the reference to my result (yes, only 6 alphanum digits).

I have now requested the KV form with the cwa code from my doctor.
They are very surprised - they seem to not know this procedure.
So it will be interesting if this code will be integrated and the lab result will be sent to the RKI server?

[dsarkar]

@ndegendogo Thanks for the info. So they do not know about the CWA and the possibility to send the test result via the CWA, is that what you are saying? They are not connected to the CWA infrastructure?

[ndegendogo]

@dsarkar good question. At least my doctor does not know this process. No idea about the lab.
So I have now requested and got a KV form with a cwa code. However, they mentioned that they had to print it again on my request. No idea if this is then the same code as on my original lab sample, or a newly created GUID.

I will scan this code into cwa; but to be honest, I don't expect it to work.

[dsarkar]

@ndegendogo ok, thanks. Let us know, please, and then will see how to proceed with this.

[ndegendogo]

code is registered successfully into cwa.
Doctor promised the lab result available tomorrow around noon time.

[ndegendogo]

🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

All is well!

• cwa was the fastest to notify me about my test result 😁😁
• the lab (Labor Augsburg MVZ) is obviously integrated into cwa infrastructure 👍👍
• and my result is negative 🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀

🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

[dsarkar]

Good morning @ndegendogo Thank for the feedback and letting us know!

[ndegendogo]

The lab that processed my PCR test seems to be connected to cwa result server (cwa notified me of my result); but they seem not connected to the certificate server (they don't provide a test certificate).

Question:
Are the labs required to work on this integration? Or is this a pure voluntary additional service which they can decide on their own to provide it or not?

Note: the lab is Labor Augsburg MVZ.

[ndegendogo]

By the way, the FAQ tells me:
Kurz nachdem das Testergebnis in der App vorliegt, erhalten Sie auch Ihr Testzertifikat in der App - vorausgesetzt, Sie haben es vorher angefordert und die jeweilige Schnellteststelle unterstützt die Erstellung eines Zertifikats.

So who would be responsible in my case to provide the test certificate?
The lab, or the doctor who took my swab?

[dsarkar]

@ndegendogo KV form with the CWA code, where did you get it from, the doctor or the lab? I will come back with you about your other questions.

[ndegendogo]

@dsarkar
The KV form I got from the doctor.

[dsarkar]

@ndegendogo Thanks again for reporting here. The lab you mentioned does not emit EU DCCs currently, so it is not an error that you dint't receive a certificate. However, this "issue" has been raised internally and is being discussed. I will try to keep you updated.

[ndegendogo]

Thanks @dsarkar

[MikeMcC399]

The laboratory connection issue is mitigated by CWA 3.0 which provides a workaround of being able to self-report. See blog announcement Version 3.0: CWA warnings now possible after positive self-test

"Previously, an official positive rapid or PCR test in the CWA was required in order to initiate a warning via the Corona-Warn-App. With version 3.0, the Corona-Warn-App (CWA) has a new feature: Warnings are now also possible after a positive self-test. Users with a positive test result can initiate a warning through the CWA by themselves. This applies both to positive results of PCR tests and rapid antigen tests officially issued in testing centers that have not been transmitted to the CWA, and to positive results of point-of-care PCR tests (rapid PCR tests) and self-tests."

(It seems that the label hot topic 🔥 Hot Topics from the view point of the Community lost its meaning sometime in the past!)

[brianebeling]

Hey @MikeMcC399

Thanks for adding more information to this issue. The tag Hot Topic can also be applied to topics that arise across more than just GitHub. A rare case indeed - but in this case we also continued to receive a lot of feedback via other means of communication. The connectivity to the laboratories has been an ongoing topic for a long time. But, we are reassessing this issue specifically at the moment.