COVID19 – At a Glance
As of Nov 30, 2020, there have been 63.2 m cases of COVID-19 resulting in 1.47 m deaths (click for current stats) .
There could be an additional 150 million people pushed into extreme poverty by 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic (source: The World Bank ).
The crisis has also become a new source of waste – with some estimates of 129 billion face masks and 65 billion gloves produced monthly in addition to gowns and other PPE. Hospitals in Wuhan at the initial center of the outbreak produced more than 240 tons of single use plastic based medical waste (disposable face masks, gloves, and gowns) per day at the peak of the pandemic.
As the COVID-19 pandemic rages across the world, governments, institutions, and communities around the world are trying to find ways to cope not only with the immediate health and budget concerns, but also create stimulus opportunities that can hopefully not only get resources into the hands of affected communities, but also contribute towards longer-term sustainable development.
For example, New Zealand plans to invest USD740 million in restoring wetlands and controlling pests and weeds as part of its COVID-19 economic recovery plan. The government expects to create 11,000 new jobs through its recovery plan. India’s COVID-19 stimulus package includes spending USD780 million on afforestation and forest management , which will help stimulate the economy in rural areas while also increasing amount of carbon stored in trees. The stimulus package will also help in decreasing soil erosion, making water more easily accessible and expanding wildlife habitat.
The environmental aspects of COVID have been explored at institutions like the World Bank Group and the need to consider these in a larger integrated multi-sectoral context has been stressed (e.g. in relation to Zoonoses , low-carbon technology ,air quality, Building Back Better , Green development in regions such as MENA ,South Asia, etc.).
The pandemic has also helped propel everyone into the future at a rate faster than would have been otherwise. This has made many employers and employees adopt new technologies and also seriously rethink the future of work in a “post-COVID” world, with a much greater acceptance of remote work.
The current COVID-19 pandemic has also resulted in impacts on all aspects of life around the world with many environmental interconnections. For example, people who have higher exposure to fine particulates may suffer more from COVID due to co-morbidities. Similarly, COVID-induced changes in socio-economic activity have resulted in many temporary chances (including some temporary improvements) in environment including air quality, wildlife, and water quality. Technology has played an important role not only in managing the constraints imposed by the pandemic (e.g., facilitating virtual meetings, increasing work on more online platforms and facilitating remote preparation and supervision of activities), but also in tracking the spread of the pandemic and contact tracing.
The Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Map Dashboard is popular for providing one of the first global comprehensive views of the pandemic’s progress and receives over a billion hits daily both from healthcare professionals and the general public. A number of dashboards have now proliferated drawing upon an increasing world of relevant COVID-19 related data services that can be embedded.
Many countries have relied on Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) in their fight against COVID. Korea, a leading example, has done well at containing the spread of COVID by leveraging its geospatial data, embedded both inside and outside the healthcare system. GPS tracking of phones and vehicles alongside call data records and credit card transaction information, and travel information was instrumental in contact tracing and breaking the contagion chain.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport (MOLIT) , Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) , and the Korean Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) operate an integrated geospatial epidemiological investigation support system of COVID-19 diagnoses using smart city technology – “Smart City Data Hub.” MOLIT and MSIT developed the platform.
Information sharing and collaboration is performed through the Korean National Spatial Information Portal that connects various ministries, national police agencies, telecommunication companies, and credit card company vendors. By having databases that are linked together, it facilitates real-time contact tracing, enables predictions of where the next hotspots are likely, and informs deployment of resources accordingly.
There is also a rising trend to use data and collaborative networks to have virtual hackathons (on data, policy, and other aspects) to get innovative solutions to this pandemic.
In 2016, the Global Epidemic Prevention Platform (GEPP) was started when Korea Telecom suggested that global telecoms could use big data to prevent contagions at the UN General Assembly. Using roaming data cooperation, this platform provides information on contaminated area visits to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. Construction of the platform began in Kenya in 2018 and gradually expanded to Ghana and Malaysia with the use of a Google App.
As part of the COVID-19 response, it tracks a traveler’s movements, sends warning messages to people who have visited areas with infections and allows the government to collect and monitor data on the health crisis to predict potential infectious routes.
GEPP in Ghana
One of the negative spillover effects of Covid-19 has been in seen in form of large amount of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) waste produced. An Indian entrepreneur is helping turn the discarded PPE waste into bricks .
The rapid spread of Covid-19 has led to a surge in demand for masks and other protective equipment and medical accessories across the globe. Many companies including think3D , Copper3D etc, are manufacturing 3D printed masks, face shields and other medical accessories to help solve the shortage of accessories and equipment.
The COVID-19 experience has indeed dramatically changed perceptions of technology and the future in recent months and helped us start to rethink the role of technology in a post-COVID world .