Technology - a prong in COVID-19 response strategy

Hanoi (VNA) – Health declaration, contact tracing, and testing apps have been proving the effectiveness of technology in the fight against COVID-19 in Vietnam.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh recently affirmed that technology is one of the three prongs of the COVID-19 response strategy in the new period.

Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Bui The Duy, head of the quick information response team at the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, said his team has continually applied technology to evaluate the situation, make forecast on the pandemic’s developments in the Vietnam and the world, set up mechanisms for monitoring people entering Vietnam and those under quarantine, and gear up response plans for special circumstances.

Meanwhile, a group of scientists from the Medicine Faculty at the Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City has unveiled a technological solution that combined the internet of things (IoT) with artificial intelligence to concurrently manage people in quarantine sites and crowded places.

BKAV, a cybersecurity and software company, developed Bluezone - the app that is proving its importance in assisting the tracing of COVID-19 contacts.

Many other businesses have also created a number of high-quality scientific and technological products such as testing kits and vaccines and commercialised them to help with the pandemic combat.

Notably, medical and delivery robots have been put into use at quarantine sites so as to replace health workers in transporting food, medicine, and essential goods and collecting waste, thus minimising direct contact.

A number of those products were developed by the country’s senior scientists who have brought into play their role in contributing to the successful combat against the coronavirus in the country./.