In March 2020 a team of young motivated entrepreneurs dedicated itself to the digital fight against the Corona pandemic. After launching the first contact tracing app in Europe, Novid20 (“No Covid 2020”) developed a software-infrastructure for Corona mass testing which was successfully used in nursing homes and Austrian schools for a study commissioned by the Ministry of Education between fall 2020 and summer 2021.
Lollipop-PCR-tests in Germany made possible by Novid20
Starting in spring 2021, the startup conducted a pilot project with lollipop pooling tests in schools and childcare facilities in Freiburg im Breisgau (Baden-Württemberg, Germany). In this process, cotton swabs sucked by children for 30 seconds are placed in a common pool tube while they are still in class, which means that only one test needs to be performed per class, speeding up the overall testing process enormously. Labs, results notification, data management, the team around Novid20 has digitized almost the whole process related to lollipop testing. Except for sucking and transporting the samples, everything from now on runs digitally via their web application.
Since September 2021 Novid20’s application is used in all elementary and special schools throughout the state of Bavaria. "We are proud to have been selected as an Austrian company by the Free State of Bavaria for this major project at elementary and special schools. We were able to build on our experience from the project in Freiburg im Breisgau. Unlike our previous projects, we are now also working with "B-samples" - this means that in the case of a corona-positive pool, subsequent individual tests are no longer necessary" says Novid20 Managing Director Moritz Miedler.
Testing over 500.000 students twice a week
With the help of the startup's software, 50,000 pool samples from around half a million students are now processed each week at almost 3,300 school locations throughout Bavaria. Within a very short time, all school locations in Bavaria were trained to handle the software and are supported by the Novid20 team around the clock. Currently, five to ten million PCR tests per month are run via systems (co)developed by Novid20, four million of them in Bavaria alone.
About Novid20
Novid20 – No Covid. Since March 2020 Novid20 is working on innovative solutions against Covid-19. The young team has grown into experts in the field of Covid-test-infrastructure after it successfully launched a software-infrastructure for Corona mass testing whilst always working closely together with scientists and responsible authorities.
Find out more: www.novid20.at (German only)
Contact: moritz.miedler(at)novid20.at