How Technology Helps to Counter Coronavirus

The Coronavirus outbreak, a world calamity, leaving 41,238 dead, 837,016 lives vulnerable (till 31 March 2020), supply lines collapsed, economies derailed, factories shunted and cities under lockdown.

It assigns three colors to people first one is green, second and third- yellow or red, on the premise of their travel and medical histories.

There is some technology that helps to counter coronavirus. These are Color Coding, Robotics, Drones, Big Data and Facial recognition, Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Vehicles, Drones deliver medical supplies, Advanced fabrics offer protection, Chatbots to share information, Supercomputers working on a coronavirus vaccine, etc.

Utilizing its sophisticated and expansive surveillance network for the public good, tech giants Alibaba and Tencent to develop a color-coded health rating system that is tracking millions of people daily.

Color Coding

Color-coded, known as a health rating system that is tracking millions of people daily. By assigning three colors: green, yellow or red, on the basis of their travel and medical histories.

In a color-coding system, citizens have to mandatorily log in to the app using pay wallet service. Only those people who have given a green color code, allowed in public spheres after using the designated QR code at metro stations, offices, stations. There is a good number of checkpoints at most public places where the code and person’s body temperature is checked.

Robotics

From preparing meals, spraying disinfectants, cleaning, to vending rice and dispensing hand sanitizers, robots are on the frontlines everywhere to prevent the spread of coronavirus. The most common thing in many hospitals, robots is also performing diagnosis and conducting thermal imaging.

Drones

Drones mostly use to rescue, by transporting both medical equipment and patient samples. This can save valuable time, enhancing the speed of delivery, preventing the risk of samples being contaminated. Drones, flying with QR code placards, can be scanned to register health information. Drones, powered with facial recognition, also being used to broadcast warnings to the citizens to not step out of their homes and chide them for not wearing facemasks.

Big Data and Facial recognition

Getting full access to public information, led to the creation of dashboards, uninterrupted monitoring the virus. A lot of companies are developing dashboards using Big Data.  Mostly used Face recognition, infrared temperature detection techniques, installed in all leading cities. Smartphone apps. Also, used to keep a tab on people’s movements and ascertain whether or not they have been in contact with an infected person.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI), playing a leading role in healthcare. With getting the help of data analytics and predictive models, medical professionals, able to understand better about a lot of diseases.

Different from Ebola, HIV, and Influenza, Covind-19 has only a single strand RNA, so it is able to rapidly mutate. The algorithm, a lot faster than other algorithms, help predict the structure of a virus.

Autonomous Vehicles

During the severe crunch of healthcare professionals, a risk that people to people contact holds, autonomous vehicles, proving great utility in delivering essential goods like medicines and foodstuffs.

Drones deliver medical supplies

Safest and fastest way to get medical supplies during an outbreak is drone delivery.  Drones mostly used to patrol public spaces, track non-compliance to quarantine mandates, and for using thermal imaging.

Advanced fabrics offer protection

Companies hope to arm healthcare systems with face masks made from their anti-pathogen, anti-bacterial fabric that relies on metal-oxide nanoparticles.

Chatbots to share information

The most common WeChat, people can access free online health consultation services through it. Chatbots have also been essential communication tools for service providers in the travel and tourism industry to keep travelers updated on the latest travel procedures and disruptions.

Supercomputers working on a coronavirus vaccine

The cloud computing resources and supercomputers of several major tech companies, used by researchers to fast-track the development of a cure or vaccine for the virus. The speed these systems can run calculations and model solutions is much faster than standard computer processing.

In a world calamity such as COVID-19, technology, artificial intelligence, and data science have become critical to helping societies effectively deal with the outbreak.

Writer: Tahsin Ahmed