Use of IoT during global pandemic
Accelerated spread of COVID-19
The coronavirus COVID-19 is affecting 213 countries and territories around the world and 2 international conveyances.Though covid 19 is not as lethal as ebola and previous pandemic cases , but is 10 times more lethal than seasonal flu and has a current cases of 16,494,128 all over the world (as of 27 may 2020).
Like many other outbreaks, COVID-19 faces serious challenges such as identifying the origin of the epidemic , reducing the spread of the virus, and having enough medical resources to treat all the patients with severe symptoms.
Trouble point in a pandemic
Citizens livelihoods is threatened. Meanwhile the wild spread of COVID-19 has exposed and worsened many structural problems in in the governments’ health response systems.
Tracing the origin of an outbreak, quarantining potentially infected patients, treating seriously ill patients, and preventing cross-infection between medical staff and patients all require tremendous human resource.
Connected, yet contactless
Is there a solution that is easily upgradeable and automated? That’s exactly when IoT comes into play. From a technological standpoint, the coronavirus pandemic has focused the world’s attention on how we’re overcoming social isolation using technology, as well as how it’s helping to reduce the scale of the tragedy and save lives.
IoT is already used to manage some aspects of the COVID-19. For example thermal imaging drones are already used for public surveillance to ensure quarantine and also number of micro drones for detecting individuals.
IoT can be used to trace the origin of an outbreak using collecting mobile phone data to trace, in granular details of short distances and periods, hence forth it can help identify all the persons who have come into contact with the infected patients and may, therefore, also be infected.
Fully IoT connected devices enable fewer visits and a better ability to solve technical issues remotely and reduce the workload and increase the efficiency of the medical staff, all the while reducing the exposure of healthcare workers to infection.
In closing
The underlying technology and the IoT components that can be used to enable a healthcare system to deal with disease outbreaks already exist, but its all in bits and pieces and not connected. Therefore, the system needs to be able to build up its infrastructure quickly to connect the components of data collection, processing, and storage, so that the system can scale and expand for disease tracking, preventive quarantine, and the in-patient care of the infected.
