Kerala: Technology's helping hands at the time of COVID-19

From robots that deliver hand sanitisers without any physical contact to apps that help in contact tracing, coronavirus is witnessing the technology sector coming up with innovative products to fight the challenges posed by the pandemic.

While Kerala Startup Mission incubated firm Asimov Robotics was one of the foremost companies to come up with a robot that greets visitors with a tray containing hand sanitisers and providing information on COVID-19, another start-up firm has come up with a robot that dispenses hand sanitser without any physical contact.

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Bysh Automations, based at Vaikkom in Kottayam district has developed the robot, named 'Crony' which was contributed to the Vaikom government taluk hospital where patients and doctors were now using it.

With the spread of fake and misleading information posing a serious challenge, the Kerala Government has launched a multilingual app, GoK Direct Kerala, that give updates and information regarding COVID-19. Bengaluru-based Dhee Yantra Research labs launched Aham, an interactive platform that provides authentic information on COVID-19 from the World Health Organisation and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Apart from English, it also supports Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Marathi and Telugu.

Read: Coronavirus India update: State-wise total number of confirmed cases, deaths

Many mobile phone-based geofencing solutions for ensuring effective quarantining also came up ever since a scare of community spread of coronavirus got triggered in Kerala initially in Pathanamthitta district in Kerala during the first week of March as a three-member family that came from Italy skipped medical screening at the airport and got into contact with many people. A Japan-based start-up firm founded by a Malayali youth has developed meTrack that helps in effective quarantining. It helps health workers to ensure that people in quarantine were not moving out.

The Kerala Startup Mission was also facilitating many startup firms to develop medical items ranging from respiratory apparatus to masks using its Fablabs. Many apps for home delivery of essential commodities from nearby shops have also come up over the last couple of weeks.