How can we use Technology to Reduce COVID-19?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Submitted By: Morris Emmanuel J.

 

Registration No: 2020-01-00387

 

Course: Master of Science in Software Engineering

 

Course Unit: ICT4D

 

Course Code:  ITE 7103

 

Year:                1

 

Semester:         1

 

Session:           DAY

 

Lecturer:         Prof. Muwanga Zaake

 

Submission Date: December 7, 2020

 

Question: How can we use Technology to Reduce COVID-19?

 

 

 

Since the existence of the World we have seen and experienced World War I, World War II, Earthquake, Volcano, Flood, etc. Over the last decades we have witness and experienced two kinds of threats that have threatening the human race over and over again. Epidemics and Pandemics have been threating the human race and have shown their immeasurable loses and destructions on the World economic, Education Sectors, Health Sectors, Agricultural Sectors, etc.

 Aforementioned, we will focus our attention on the use of Technology to reduce the recent pandemic called COVID-19. Technology can’t prevent the onset of the pandemic; however, it can help in many ways to prevent the spread, educate, warm, empower innovative ideas to find future cures, empower the general public to be aware of the pros and coins, lessen the impact, etc. Companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Zoom, Cisco, YouTube, Creative Individuals, etc., are working tirelessly to find Technological solutions that will guide and prevent people to get the right and verifiable information such as those published by World Health Organization (WHO), Center for Diseases Control (CDC), Regional Health Institutions, and National Governments around the World. 

 

Using Technology to Find COVID-19 Drugs

When this pandemic struck, the first question that was on everybody’s mind was is there a drug to cure COVID-19 or a vaccine to prevent it? Technology has becomes the bare rock for the world to desperately find ways to slowdown the spread of the coronavirus and to find an effective everlasting cure or treatment. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is playing an important role in suggesting and discovering components of vaccines by understanding viral protein structures, and helping medical researchers scour millions of heaps of relevant research papers in medical labs and research centers all around the world at an unprecedented pace. We can use Technology like Google DeepMind or AlphaFold, a cutting-edge technology that predicts the 3D structure of a protein coronavirus base on its genetic sequence. Technology was also used at the National Institutes of Health to create the first 3D atomic scale map of the part of the coronavirus that attached to and infects human cells.

 Using Technology to Increase Traceability and Transparency by Sharing COVID-19 Data

In every conflict such as this pandemic, clear messaging to the general populace is important and critical in making sure that people are informed and reminded to use all appropriate Health precautionary measures and procedures. Technology like COVID-19 mobile Apps, Traceable contact tracing Apps, AI, ML, etc., to provide real time information on the visibility of the outbreak. Technology like Microsoft Bing launched an interactive COVID-19 map to provide widespread coronavirus disease news to the general populace. Social platform Technology like TikTok has partnered with WHO on COVID-19 to help keep their users and the general populace knowledgeable with correct, timely, factual, live stream, etc., where the populace will be able to ask questions and seek answers on all coronavirus related issues. Technology like travel data alerts are been used to build a monitoring system and provide real-time alerts to all visitors that have travelled to infected vicinity. In Uganda, both MTN and Airtel are using Technology such as caller tunes, messages, and advertisements to spread awareness about the coronavirus pandemic.

 Facial Recognition and Big Data Technologies are used in reducing COVID-19

CCTV cameras along with facial recognition technologies can help in identifying infected people or persons who break the rules and step out of quarantined area despite being quarantined by health authorities. Facial recognition technologies along with big data can accurately identify people if they are wearing masked and detect their COVID-19 status. AI-based risk assessment tools are being designed by AI research companies to provide clarity amongst the confusion caused by the pandemic populace. These AI Technologies are helping in differentiating whether the patients have a common cold, flu, or COVID-19, whether or not the individual needs to be tested, and what tests are required. We can use AI-based solutions to effectively reduce the spread of COVID-19 by screening large populations and detect a change in their body temperature while they are on the move. This system can examine about 200 people per minute without disrupting the flow of people. Such technologies can be implemented in populated areas, hospitals, train stations, airports, etc.

 Drones, Robots, and Autonomous Vehicles in Reducing COVID-19

In the fight to stop the spread of the Coronavirus we can explore the above Technologies as follow: Drones can be used for food deliveries, tracking population, carrying test kits and medicines to quarantine locations, providing images to identify infected people, spraying disinfectant, and more in eradicating Coronavirus. Robots can be used in delivering groceries, cooking means, sterilizing hospitals, accessing infected areas, and patrolling the streets. Autonomous vehicles can be used to transport affected people to and from healthcare facilities with ease and less human contact, without risking the lives of other people been infected.

 Temperature Monitoring Supported Technology in Combating COVID-19

At public places, shops, supermarkets, train stations, hospitals, hotels, airports, checkpoints, government offices, private offices, etc., the wireless thermometer guns and other similar infrared body temperature measuring devices have become the most important technological  medical equipment that are being used in fighting the spread of Coronavirus. To effectively pinpoint individuals who might need further medical investigation, facial recognition along with automated thermal monitoring is making the process faster and more effective.

 Technologies used to support Social Distancing and Maintain Business Continuity through Remote working in the fight to Reduce COVID-19

Enterprise applications, Google virtual class, Zoom virtual conferencing, Cloud conferencing, Augmented reality, are all technologies that are the forefront leaders to ensure deliverables are not negatively impacted. Students are having virtual classes, government, private, and civil society employees are working remotely that comes as a blessing due to advanced technologies that have become one of the  greatest solutions that had helped us in social distancing which is a major health procedure in fighting and eradicating the Coronavirus.

 Electronic Payment for Goods and Services

Technologies like Mobile Money, Crypto-currency, debit and credit cards payments are all powerful technologies that can be used in Reducing and eliminating the Coronavirus. Citizens can still home or in their places of convenient to pay their taxes, receive their wages, pay for goods and services, etc., right online without having any physical contact with another individual.

 Technology in Agriculture to Reduce COVID-19

Our farmers in both urban and rural areas can explore technologies like drones and robots to monitor and receive weather updates on their crops and livestock without having to come into physical contact with those livestock, crops, and another person that might cause infection. Selling and payment of their goods can also be done online without gathering at the regular market places that could cause infection.

 In conclusion, the next pandemic is not a matter of “if it happens”, but “when it happens”, would we be prepared in advance against the pandemic at an individual, government, private sector, and collective level? What we actually need is preparedness. Indeed, the technology has advanced more over the past years and will continue to advance at an exponential level, but we the human kind, institutions, and societies need to accelerate in advance in adapting to the technology quickly and continue in investing and building the technology systems for the preparedness, for the next outbreak that will not leave us with the question, how can we used technology to reduce COVID-19? But rather we will already have those solutions before the problem arrive. Technology has not just reduced the spread of the Coronavirus but also managed the quick spread of the pandemic from AI to robots, virtual conferencing, virtual goods and services, electronic payment, etc., Technology has also better equip health care workers to fight public health emergency in a more timely, systematic, robust, effective, efficient, and calm manner.