As the world is going through the worst ever public health crisis, multiple challenges are cropping up with infections taking place from viruses. Many of these viral infections are proven to be airborne. Experts, scientists and ASHRAE claim that viruses like COVID-19 can easily spread through indoor air circulation systems, which means that a single infected person can trigger the infection to countless others.

To overcome this biggest challenge of the pandemic, Airific Systems, a Delhi-based tech start-up, has introduced ‘UVHeal SafeAir’ – an ultra-modern UV-based HVAC Air disinfectant’ for central air conditioning systems to break the spread of airborne diseases.

UVHeal SafeAir uses the proven UVGI (ultraviolet germicidal irradiation) technology to disinfect the circulated air by destroying the DNA or RNA of the dangerous viruses and bacteria present and hence stopping these airborne pathogens from replicating– right at the point from where the air is supplied to any premises. The product is suitable to be used in all the public places equipped with central air conditioning systems like airports, hospitals, theatres, hotels, offices, schools & colleges, restaurants, and even industrial areas.

The International Ultraviolet Association (IUVA) & ASHRAE has also suggested that UVC disinfection technology can efficiently combat the viruses responsible for causing epidemics like COVID-19, SARS COV-1, SARS COV-2, MERS-COV, etc.

Ankit Sharma, Director, Airific Systems states, “At Airific Systems, we aim to work on a consumer-centric approach where we bring future-driven technology that makes the lives of our customers joyful. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected individuals as well as organisations. Now is the time when we adapt ourselves to the scenario. So, when it comes to the health, comfort, and well-being of the community, UVHeal SafeAir will turn out to be the most effective solution.

Technology has always been at the forefront of all our products and businesses and UVHeal SafeAir is no different. There are many in built technology features within the product, and we have developed a special software based on computational fluid dynamics and using simulation tools to get the highest efficient design with the highest desired efficiency to work on customer solutions.”

The pandemic has brought artificial intelligence (AI) more of a spotlight as nations around the world look for uses, from combing data for clues to predict an outbreak, to robot waiters that reduce human contact. In Vietnam, which has reported remarkably low infection and death figures, the possible uses are still being tested. They include chatbots to dispense information, face recognition technology, predictive mapping, and software to combat rumors about the disease.

For instance, FPT Corp., the nation’s biggest telecommunications and software company, introduced a web application that uses automation to assess COVID-19 risk. How it works: Vietnamese go to the Corona Check website and enter data on where they have been recently. The app then cross references that with data on the location, timing, and quantity of cases nationwide to calculate the odds someone has come into contact with the coronavirus.

“Our AI system is continuously updating data to improve itself,” Tran Hoang Giang, the FPT Software vice president, said. “Currently it could predict the probability of coronavirus infection with 90% accuracy. But it’ll get even better as more people submit self-assessments on the web.”

The process is helped in part by the fact that Vietnam, which has had 841 COVID-19 cases this year, publishes uniquely detailed, anonymized data on patients’ movements so that others can check if they went somewhere at the same time as an infected person. For instance, one record showed the times that a patient had gone to a mall, a cafe, and a market.

Warning system

The work on machine learning sends a good message, according to FPT chairman Truong Gia Binh.

“Not only tech enthusiasts in developed countries but also young, talented Vietnamese have the opportunity to exchange knowledge and research about AI,” he said.

Vietnam has also joined in on a popular AI strategy globally to map out many data points that might predict where the next cluster of COVID-19 cases will occur. The data points can number in the dozens and may not seem directly related, such as weather, density in a shopping center, or popular Google searches. However, taken together, the right data can correlate with disease outbreaks and serve as a warning system that detects risks before humans do.

In addition to models that assess the threat of a disease, Vietnam has a COVID-19 map that is paired with news articles, which are updated through automation software to dispel misinformation. The Southeast Asian nation has taken a hard line against pandemic rumors, which could prove deadly and in other nations have encouraged unscientific home remedies.

Telemedicine

Beyond machine learning, COVID-19 is also spurring more interest in another emerging technology called telemedicine. For instance, the company Doctor Anywhere now has physicians assessing Vietnamese patients for signs of the disease via video consultations, which are also conducted in Thailand and Singapore.

All of this is part of Industry 4.0, a term for the latest advancements that are supposed to help economies move to the next stage of development. Vietnam expects these advances to help it recover from the pandemic, too.

“AI is considered a core technology for Industry 4.0 that has implications for post COVID-19 healing,” Chu Ngoc Anh, the Minister of Science and Technology in Vietnam, said.

His government is working with Australia, which said last week it donated 650,000 Australian dollars “to find new ways to use AI as Vietnam recovers from COVID-19.”

The money will fund things like a contest in which programmers submit competing ideas to put machine learning to use.

“In the face of the global pandemic, it [innovation] has become more important than ever,” Robyn Mudie, the Australian Ambassador to Vietnam, said.

She added: “This AI initiative is a great example of how new technology can be adapted quickly to respond to Vietnam’s emerging needs.”

As the world is grappling with Covid-19, there is a slew of news, data, and opinions on the pandemic. With so much going around, Sunway University is collaborating with PEMANDU Associates and Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) Malaysia on the Global COVID-19 Index (GCI), a method to consolidate data on the pandemic from verified sources of 184 countries into a comprehensive index which governments, businesses, and communities can refer to.

With the GCI, countries will be able to compare their performance with that of other countries that are performing better to identify best practices and efforts during the Covid-19 pandemic. Updated daily, the GCI includes data on the rate of recovery, active cases, and the number of tests conducted.

The GCI also considers countries’ previously evaluated ability to detect, respond, and treat infections of any epidemic based on the publicly available Global Health Security Index published in October 2019. The GCI can be used to track recoveries in countries of neighboring regions, monitor when restrictions can be relaxed for possible easing of border restrictions.

According to Professor Peh Suat Cheng, Professor of Pathology and Dean, School of Healthcare and Medical Sciences at Sunway University, “We are currently deriving data that produces insights that can help governments and societies identify emerging trends from the GCI. For example, we have identified that countries that have high ambient temperatures and low latitudes appear to have low COVID-19 case fatality rates which can serve to inform policy decisions and epidemiological research.”

Researchers from the School of Healthcare and Medical Sciences will also look into developing their own research papers using the data from GCI and other multivariate statistical analysis, machine learning, and mathematical modeling data from researchers at the University’s School of Mathematical Sciences.

The GCI encompasses the Severity Index and the Recovery Index. “The Country Severity Index is a measure of how severely impacted the Country has been since the outbreak from a healthcare perspective as it takes into consideration the total number of confirmed cases and total proportionate death due to COVID19 since the outbreak commenced. These contribute 70% of its weightage and behaves more like a ‘scarring parameter’, which tells us whether the country is recovering from a lower case/death toll or a higher one. It is not a measure of current ongoing severity. The Severity Index also takes into consideration the overall Healthcare Preparedness by utilizing a 30% weightage assigned to pre-existing static sub-indicators completed by the Global Health Security Index (GHS) previously. We are in the midst of improving and potentially replacing the latter static indicators through our engagements with the World Health Organisation”, said Woody Ang, Executive Vice President at PEMANDU Associates.

The Recovery Index measures how well a country is handling the crisis from a health and safety perspective. Professor Serge Demidenko, Dean of the School of Science and Technology at Sunway University said his researchers have been interested to provide specialist support in Computer Database Technologies and application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Data Analytics aiming to not just analyze past data, but also forecast and model future trends.

“During this Covid-19 time, AI and Analytics will allow us to use available data to understand the impact of the pandemic better and thus to assist to propose appropriate solutions. Our academics are available to team up with collaborators both locally and internationally to explore new recovery solutions for the post- COVID-19 world”, said Professor Serge.

The GCI has enabled best practice analysis in the form of the Global Pathfinder: Global Lessons in Tackling COVID-19, a 118-page detailed report on best practices in health interventions for COVID-19 which was a collaboration that PEMANDU Associates undertook with the UK-Based Delivery Associates. The report is available here.

The Global COVID-19 Index (GCI) is an international collaboration between Sunway University, PEMANDU Associates, and Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (MOSTI) Malaysia.