Technology has portrayed a vital role in responding to the novel coronavirus and consequent COVID-19 pandemic. The virus’s mixture of mortality and transmissibility has been challenging to almost everyone and all sectors available.Nevertheless, throughout this pandemic, technology is displaying a new form of hope and invention that represents opportunities for a better future.
Technologies like chatbots and virtualized patient care have been beneficial in healthcare.Artificial intelligence and high-performance computing have hastened research and help in the development of drug discovery.While much advancement is still needed, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted technology’s importance in multiple sectors.
Now let’s see 8 ways in which technology helped pandemic management.
1) Contactless Movements and Deliveries Through Autonomous Vehicles, Drones and Robots:
Self-driving cars, drones, robots can all aid at a time when the requirement is to avoid human contact. Autonomous vehicles can be employed to transport affected people to and from healthcare amenities with ease, without jeopardizing the lives of healthy people.
Robots can be adopted for delivering groceries, disinfecting hospitals, and patrolling the streets. Drones are deployed for delivering foods, transporting test kits and medicines to isolated locations, thermal imaging to recognize infected people, spraying disinfectants, and more. Various new areas and use cases are coming up where drones, robots, and autonomous vehicles are being used. In China, Drones and Autonomous Robots were used to fight Coronavirus.
2) Role of Social Media in Pandemic Management:
Social Media platforms like TikTok have partnered with WHO on COVID-19 to help manage their users with accurate, up-to-date facts, along with a live stream from the WHO where users will be able to ask questions and clear their doubts and get answers.
In India, telecom operators like Jio, BSNL, Airtel, and more, are using the caller tunes to increase awareness about the pandemic. Also, many people and influencers on Instagram are providing timely information about the covid resources.
3) Remote Working Technologies To Support Social Distancing and Maintaining Business Continuity
As pandemics or other disasters continue threatening the business world, working from home guarantees business flow as well as aids social distancing. In such a situation, technology enables secure access to data, enterprise applications, virtual meetings, and cloud conference.Applications like Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom have been helping the employees to conduct virtual meetings. Remote working is a blessing that comes due to technology and is of one the most excellent solution that supports us in social distancing.
4) Finding Drugs
AI is playing a vital role in recommending components of a vaccine by understanding viral protein structures and helping medical researchers hunt loads of relevant research papers at an unprecedented speed. AI Can Help Scientists Find a Covid-19 Vaccine
5) Virtualized Patient Care
Throughout the pandemic, mobile care was given virtually, for the most part. Mostly it was given in the form of TeleHealth. Looking ahead, virtual care may be used in other forms such as active and passive remote patient monitoring, virtual rounding, and virtual ICU care.
6) Technology-Supported Temperature Monitoring
The wireless thermometer guns and other similar infrared body temperature measuring devices are the most important medical equipment that is being used at checkpoints of offices, airports, resorts, hospitals, train stations, stores, and other public places. These technologies help in measuring the body temperature from a distance and turn out to be efficient in pinpointing the individuals who might need more examination.
7) Role of Technology in the Field of Education
Due to the outbreak of the pandemic, all the schools and colleges have been closed for more than a year now. Technology has now become the solution for the students to continue their schools and colleges virtually through applications like Meet and Teams. Students are now able to attend classes, submit assignments, and take the test through these technologies.
8) Technology helping in workout platforms
Given the condition of the pandemic, it is highly important for everyone to maintain their mental and physical health. As we all know that, most of the gyms and other physical training centers are now closed, technology has come to aid here too. Many applications such as BetterMe, Fitness Buddy, MyFitnessPal, Home Workout – No Equipment, Workout for Women: Fitness App, Workout Trainer: Fitness Coach, etc have been useful for people to keep their mind and body better in this pandemic.
Following the COVID-19 outbreak, it is obvious that, from AI to robotics, the technology discoveries are assisting to handle the epidemic and to better equip to fight later public health crisis in a convenient, well-organized, and calm manner.
