One of the most important ways of containing the spread of the COVID-19 virus is to maintain a minimum distance of one metre between people. However, especially in public places, such as transport facilities, shopping centres or supermarkets, there may be large gatherings of people that exceed the available space. Therefore, special measures to maintain social distancing are important. While it is not so easy to change the structural design, it is possible to design its use. For example, the number of shopping trolleys and baskets available can be used to regulate the number of customers in a supermarket – anyone without a trolley has to wait outside the shop until one becomes available. One-way systems or barriers between shelves can be implemented using bands similar to those used in airport waiting areas.
The software tool SIMULATE developed by the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology can analyse the flow of people and evaluate the effectiveness of various measures. This makes it possible to estimate the extent to which the recommendations regarding minimum safety distances between people can be adhered to. In an exemplary simulation of customer flows in a supermarket, it was assumed that customer frequency was halved and a one-way system was in place in the store – with no change in the time customers spent in front of the shelves. The status quo without these measures was that practically no customer had less than three minutes of contact (at a distance of less than one metre) with other customers. When the measures were implemented, however, the contact time was drastically reduced: almost two-thirds of customers had less than ten seconds of contact with others, and 90 percent had less than 30 seconds.