ALL HANDS ON DECK

How the tech world is racing against time to stop pandemics

- Gabriel Pe

In the last few months COVID-19—caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus—has brought the world to a standstill. The disease is fatal to individuals who are immunocompromised and has killed over 300,000 around the world and infected over 4-million others as of this writing.

In order to slow the spread of the disease, countries have implemented strict lockdowns and quarantine protocols for their citizens. The USA, Italy, and Spain are amongst the most affected by the disease with fatalities reaching thousands in a single day.

In order to help stop the spread of the deadly virus, several of the world’s biggest tech companies have banded together to think of new and ingenious ways on how they could help to fight the pandemic.

Testing kits made easy

Many tech giants have their own health and medicine research arms. These companies have started focusing their efforts on COVID-19 testing and research, with some updating their testing machines to detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus. A perfect example of this is tech and power tools maker Bosch, who has produced an update for their Vivalytic molecular diagnostic platform that will be adapted to test for the coronavirus in patients, offering results in under two and a half hours.

Dedicated COVID-19 websites and apps