Health Mapping & AI Tools making people tech-savvy amidst Covid-19 lockdown

As India surpassed 1,60,000 corona cases, the government is actively pursuing contact tracing to help control infections.

Experts are now speculating that the post-pandemic era will bring a new normal, as people would prefer to go outside with the bottle of sanitizer and face masks.

As talks of post lockdown plans emerge, people will have to make some changes to their regular functioning. A post-lockdown world would have to be more cautious, more sanitized, and still maintain a social distance. AI may be of tremendous help for the scenario.

New research suggests that using a health mapping app to track people’s movements and identify and isolate anyone who has come into contact with an infected person could be critical.

Here are some apps which are making people tech-savvy in the times of coronavirus -

Arogya Setu

Aarogya Setu is a mobile application developed by the Government of India to connect essential health services with the people of India in our combined fight against Covid-19.

The App is aimed at augmenting the initiatives of the Centre, particularly the Department of Health, in proactively reaching out to and informing the users of the app regarding risks, best practices, and relevant advisories pertaining to the containment of Covid-19.

The app, which is a coronavirus tracker of sorts works on the basis of contact tracing and can help a user identify possible coronavirus 'hotspot' around their area. It can help people stay safe and adopt necessary precautions in some areas where there are cases and accordingly, help stop or prevent community transmission to an extent.

Cova Punjab

COVA Punjab (Corona Virus Alert) App has been developed by the Government of Punjab to provide citizens with preventive care information and other government advisories.

The app will help by providing a real-time dashboard for Punjab, India, and global stats, to check for symptoms of Corona and have a quick self-screening, corona awareness, traveling instructions, prevention products, and information about Corona Hospitals in Punjab. Users will receive updates from government, advisories, and instructions from time to time via PUSH notification on the App.

Corona Kavach

The Corona Kavach app is meant to track coronavirus and mitigate its spread. It also maps the health of the user by asking for the information.

Users are required to answer a couple of questions (if you are facing difficulty in breathing, body temperature, sore throat, and more) and it will mark them as All Good, See a Doctor, Quarantine, and Infected.

Following this, whenever users would go out, they would require to enable the app which can (by tracking your location) alert them if they are in the proximity of another person either infected by coronavirus or at high risk. This way, users of this app can remain safe from catching the virus.

Quarantine Watch

Built by the Revenue Department of the Government of Karnataka, Quarantine Watch helps state authorities keep a track of people under watch by asking them to ‘self-report’ while in quarantine.

The government is urging users to upload a selfie every hour while they are in the 14-day isolation period. If the GPS coordinates change, they will be sent to a government-run mass quarantine center.

Users have to register themselves on the app by entering personal details like name, phone number, residential address, district, symptoms, and travel history. Quarantine Watch also provides health helpline numbers. The app has crossed 10,000 downloads on Google Play Store.

Aiisma

Aiisma is an India born data marketplace, that rewards users for consensually and anonymously trading their data via the Aiisma App.

The app is equipped with geo-location sharing and health-mapping features. It allows users to key in their health data regularly which can then be mapped to identify anomalies, and when one is identified both the user and relevant authorities can be notified to take preventive actions.

The app continuously compares user geo-location with identified positive carrier geo-location to isolate cases of Covid-19 contacts and again alert both the user as well as the relevant authorities.

In addition, there are features like alerts in case a user enters a high positive case density geography, etc. All of this with user identity being shared only with relevant authorities when necessary and keeping it anonymous at all other times.