Since March 1, 2021, the health department of the city of Bonn has been using the "Sormas-eXchange" software operated by the Federal Information Technology Center ITZBund for contact tracing. The program is intended to enable all German health authorities to exchange data with each other during the coronavirus pandemic.

Since no suitable software was available nationwide at the beginning of the corona crisis or could be made available to the municipalities by the federal states and the federal government, the city of Bonn independently designed, programmed, tested and put the "Covdi" (CovidDigital) program into operation in six weeks. The creation of quarantine notices or the automated ordering of swabs at the click of a mouse enabled Bonn's public health department to act quickly and effectively during the pandemic. Over the course of 2020, "CovDi" was adapted to meet the additional needs of employees at the public health department.

"Sormas" (Surveillance, Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System) was not initially available to local authorities as an application at the start of the coronavirus pandemic; it was only rolled out nationwide in the course of 2020. The function that allows the health authorities in the municipalities to exchange information with each other via "Sormas" is a new further development called "Sormas-eXchange", which will only be available from the beginning of 2021 and initially only to individual pilot municipalities.

The health authorities, which did not yet have any digital processing options, were identified as pilot municipalities. "Sormas" was adapted and further developed by the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) specifically for the needs of the public health service in Germany in order to enable effective supra-regional contact person management during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Thanks to funding from the federal and state governments, the software is being made available to local authorities free of charge.

With the federal-state resolution of January 19, 2021 on the corona measures, the states were requested to ensure that "Sormas" is installed in all health authorities by the end of February 2021. The city of Bonn has already anticipated these requirements by initiating the procurement of the software and planning training courses for employees at the public health department

From January 27, 2021, the software was implemented at the City of Bonn and tested with a pilot team. An individual training program was developed for employees at the public health department to enable a smooth transition from "Covdi" to "Sormas-eXchange". All employees have taken part in online training courses run by the Academy for Public Health and are supported by a team of specially trained employees who will provide ongoing assistance.