At midnight local time on 8th June, New Zealand opened up to Level 1 - the lowest of a four-tier alert system. Social distancing is no longer required, and there are no limits on public gatherings anymore.

New Zealanders credit their success to public discipline and pro-active monitoring of all contact trails without compromising on user privacy and security. "While we're in a safer, stronger position, there's still no easy path back to pre-Covid life, but the determination and focus we have had on our health response will now be vested in our economic rebuild," said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to reporters.

Key to success was the NZ COVID Tracer, a Ministry of Health mobile app for Kiwis to keep track of their visits to shops, offices and public places. It replaced the pen-and-paper registers kept at entrances, and let people run their daily lives while being protected in case the virus emerged again.

An Auckland company has now released an app based on NZ COVID tracer for other countries. "Kontakkt Space" lets business owners and shoppers sign in under 3 seconds - according to the developers - using a QR Code with end to end encryption.

"Every shop and office gets a unique QR code which they can print themselves and display on the main entrance" says Saikat G., one of the developers. "Visitors check in themselves, and the owner can get an alert on their phone for every walk-in if they choose to."

"Users' data stays on their phone and auto-deletes itself, unless there is a case of COVID-19 at that location. If that happens, every previous visitor is alerted to isolate themselves in time ."