The rapid spread of Covid-19 has forced countries to use every trick possible to contain the disease. Some countries, like South Korea and Singapore, have done a better job than  Italy and Spain. Asian countries especially India, have used a range of technologies in the fight against the pandemic, raising questions about excessive surveillance and the violation of citizens’ privacy. Here is a snapshot of some of the tech tools being deployed in different countries.

 South Korea has an app called Corona 100m that has mapped the locations of Covid-19 patients and alerts users if they come within 100 metres of an infected person. In China, apps developed by Alibaba and Tencent give people a colour code based on their health condition and travel history. This code, decided by a big data-driven algorithm, will determine whether a person gains entry into a mall or a subway station, or can travel between cities. A start-up in the UK recently launched an app for people to self-report their symptoms. C-19 Covid Symptom Tracker, which was downloaded 7.5 lakh times in three days, helps identify high-risk areas.

India is also set to launch an app that will tell users if they came in contact with someone who later tested positive for Covid-19,  The app is based on location data obtained from the infected person’s smartphone. It will also use short-distance Bluetooth signals between phones, like Singapore’s TraceTogether app, which helps authorities trace contacts of a patient.

In an effort to enable contactless and rapid temperature detection, China is using AI-powered thermal cameras to identify those in a crowd who have a fever. The country is also deploying facial-recognition systems to identify those not wearing masks. In early March, a new isolation ward was opened in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the coronavirus outbreak started. What’s interesting about this ward is that it is entirely manned by robots that take patients’ temperature, give them food and drugs, and disinfect the ward.

China has also used robots in quarantine facilities, and so has Singapore to clean hospitals. The use of robots spares healthcare workers the risk of contracting the virus. In some parts of China, the police have used drones fitted with cameras and loudspeakers to disperse crowds and direct individuals in the streets to return home.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning  along with several technologies are the Future. We may never know when is any new pandemic is going to hit but certainly can look out for the solutions if are willing enough to fight next one.