Coronavirus which started in Wuhan, China on 31 December is a world pandemic disease in which the wholeworld is at stake. As we know, the disease is spreading rapidly it is important to foresee the disease and to contain it. There are many casualties due to this disease and for the safety and the security of the people, various government and private institutions and people have made so many technologies to make the lives easier at this time. We know prevention is better than cure; it's better to stay safe rather than curing the disease after suffering from the disease. Various countries are working to find a drug for this disease so that this.
1. Artificial intelligence (AI)
Artificial intelligence is playing a major role in the development of various new kinds of products to help the people in the pandemic. It is being used for tracking the outbreak of the virus, developing vaccines, and also in various gadgets like in CCTVs, etc for monitoring the people's temperature and social distancing.
2. Pact bluetooth chip
PACT-Private automatic contact tracing is a developing project by the MIT experts using the short-range Bluetooth signals in the mobile phones to trace the people whom the infected person had contact within the last 14 days. In this project a phone sends arbitrary signals to the nearby phones and the other phones, collects the signals and re-sends it, these data are stored in the databases and if a person is infected by the virus then it would be easy to locate the people the person have been in contact with within the 14-day period.
3. 3D printing
Nowadays there is an increase in the need for medical equipment and gadgets like masks, ventilators, breathing filters, etc, and these are done by the help of 3D printing devices. These devices produce products much faster and efficient than the traditional method.
4. Delivery drones
Drones may be called the future delivery vehicle. Because of the speed and efficiency of drones, they can be used for delivering products much faster, and thus major companies like Amazon, Dominos pizza, etc. are working on this. In this pandemic period drones are also used for delivering food and groceries etc. In Rwanda and South Africa, a medical organisation called Zipline has been using drones to deliver blood and blood products.
5. Robots
Robots have always been a fascination to the world. Scientists have been working for years to make a fully developed robot. Currently, they are used in various countries for purposes like cleaning the floor, hospital reception, medical assistance, etc. In China, they are used for checking temperature, spraying disinfectants, dispense hand sanitiser; and in providence, regional medical centre doctors use robots to treat the COVID-19 patients sitting outside the glasses and utilising the robot cameras.
6. Big-data analytics
Big-Data plays a major role in the present situation. They provide an effective way of analysing the data and helps to provide a visualisation of the analysed data by which we can foresee the spread. People have also developed various products such as chatbots and online tools by which we can collect the data, visualize and analyse the spread.
7. Gene editing:
Gene editing technology is the technique in which RISPR-Cas9 ((Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats--associated protein 9) is used to edit the genetic code in a person. They have been used to treat muscular dystrophy, Alzheimer's in mice, fight drug-resistant bacteria. As this is an efficient way of curing the disease but there are so many obstacles in executing this procedure. One on the main problem is the lack of modern technology, if any incomplete or change in gene edition to the undirected location happens then they might have various kind of unpredictable future consequences. presently Mammoth Bioscience the co-founder of RISPRCas9 are working on this gene editing for covid-19 in University of California, San Francisco. As this technique is an efficient way of treating the pathogen this is an indispensable technique. Maybe in the future we glimpse on it.
8. Nano technology
Nanotechnology can be defined as the use of nano-sized particles and devices to diagnosing, target medicine delivery, etc. Nano-technology is an antiviral drug delivery system that helps the cells by reacting with the virus and binding with them and eliminating the chances of a virus entering the cell. Nano-particles or gold and silver are used in medical nanotechnology. This technology helps to create vaccines that can affect a particular location and thus they are really important. RNA based vaccines do not have licenses to be released but a USA based medical company has used an RNA based vaccine called mRNA-1273 in testing for developing the vaccine for COVID-19 and has entered the 1-phase of the test.
9. Super computer
Supercomputers are computers that can process a large amount of data at a specific time. Today, they are used by major tech companies such as Huawei, to develop vaccines by analysing data at a much faster rate and also used for making large calculations and models for the infected virus. Governments and healthcare institutions are also using satellite imaging and positioning to find the infected people and to provide them with effective care. These are a few of the technologies used by people during this pandemic period to reduce the spread and contain it.
Changes in technology
1. Digital payment
In digital payments, the payer and the payee both use digital modes to send and receive money. It is also called electronic payment. Cash might carry the virus, so some banks in various countries like China, USA and South Korea have set up several techniques to make sure that notes are clean before they go into the market. Digital payments, either in the form of cards or e-wallets, are the prescribed payment method to avoid the spread of COVID-19.
2. Remote work
Many companies have asked their employees to work from home. Remote work is based on the technologies such as virtual private networks (VPNs), voice over internet protocols (VOIPs), and virtual meetings using cloud technology, work collaboration tools and even facial recognition technologies that permit a person to appear before a virtual background to preserve the privacy.
3. Distance learning
Educational institutions like colleges and schools have started online education. This helps ensure that the education is not been disrupted by the lockdown. Technologies involved in this learning are similar to those for remote work and also include virtual reality, augmented reality and AI-enabled robot teachers.
4. Telehealth
Telehealth is the distribution of health related services and information via electronic information and telecommunication technologies. Telehealth is an effectual way to fighting against the spread of COVID. Although quarantine measures have turn down the person to person interactions significantly, human innovation has rought the parties online. With the help of these technologies doctor consultations made easier through virtual contact.
5. Online entertainment
Online entertainment blends entertaining interactive functionality and content including live video streaming, video chat communications, multi-player gaming, music and videos streaming, with social networking service such as social graph management, forums, reviews, ratings, and geo-location options. Due to the lockdown and the spread of COVID-19 all the malls and the theatres are shut. As a result, some of the movies are being released in online entertainment site like Amazon prime, Netflix and so on. These online entertainment apps are helpful to compensate the economic loss which the countries are facing during this pandemic.
