Several technologies are being used in Asia, essentially ground zero of the COVID-19 outbreak, to demonstrate effectiveness in fighting the pandemic. “China is becoming the largest testing ground to demonstrate how emerging technologies can be harnessed to improve epidemic management and minimize the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak,” said Vankata Naveen, disruptive tech analyst at GlobalData, in a news release. According to the GlobalData Disruptor Intelligence Center, several new technologies are being deployed to combat coronavirus.

• Artificial intelligence. Canada-based BlueDot [https://bluedot.global/] had used AI and machine learning to detect the coronavirus outbreak with an algorithm that analyzed news reports, social media and government sources.
• Sterilization. Autonomous sterilization robots can help hospitals contain the infection.
• Blockchain. Services powered by blockchain can help hospitals spend less time on administrative work and allow healthcare workers stay on the frontlines to treat patients.
• Drones. A start-up company from Singapore has implemented an “urban air transportation channel” to send medical supplies between certain hospitals in China.
• Chatbots. Chatbots are providing real-time information to providers and can help answer questions about coronavirus prevention, symptoms and treatment. Tech company Baidu developed an open-sourced algorithm to help researchers speed up the time it takes to predict the coronavirus’ RNA secondary structure from 33 minutes to 27 seconds.

“With coronavirus pushing China’s health system into turmoil, the country is deploying tech solutions like never before to overcome its worst crisis in years,” says Naveen. “The ongoing epidemic has once again reiterated how important emerging technologies are in predicting and combating the spread of infectious diseases.”