‘Emerging technologies can help combat coronavirus’

Islamabad : The emerging technologies can help the world combat the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, say experts during a webinar.

The event was organised by the China-Pakistan Study Centre of the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad in collaboration with the Mishal Pakistan and Wusool.

Speakers from the government, development sector and international institutions participated in it. Director General of the Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad, Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry stressed the significance of technology to deal with COVID-19 and said the pandemic had brought in the consideration how to use modern technology in a more efficient way to communicate and connect.

He said though the technology race had already begun, it was important to ensure its equitable access every segment of society.

"For indigenization of technology, we need to have more homegrown solutions. Research and development at home is extremely important to detection, vaccine development, data collection and analysis. In order to deal with current health crisis, it is important to enhance regional cooperation. Regionalism could become more popular, offering new opp­or­tunities," he said.

The DG said the responsibility to combat the COVID-19 situation rested with the private sector, civil society, media and other institutions and they should work together to lessen the suffering of the people.

Amir Jahangir, Chief Executive Officer, Mishal Pakistan, said that it was the need of hour to understand and make use of emerging technologies. "The government needs to devise a system to use digital technologies for welfare of the people. Also, tax regimes on technologies help fight COVID-19 should be revisited to create more value for the citizens," he said.

Barkan Saeed, founder of Vizteck Solutions, said China was successfully using thermal detectors & cameras to detect COVID19 patients.

"This technological advancement is helping China to combat Corona effectively," he said.

Hassan Syed, founding member of the BIR Ventures, said to keep everything going in this hard time we need to focus on care and cure. "Our top priority should be producing more ventilators, test kits and tele­medicine should be made available for masses."

Aamna Rafiq, research associate at ISSI, said coronavirus tracking could be improved by data control, air traffic, social distance patterns, medical histories and how government handles epidemiological parameters at local and national levels of AI systems. Dr Akber Gardezi said while the use of technology was very important to deal with the crisis but it was important to note that due to weak access to technology along with poor infrastructure, , the marginalized community had become more marginalised.

"It is important to create inclusion, such that the wider segment of society is benefited," he said. Dr. Shumail Daud, a healthcare business professional, said Pakistan and the world needs to invest more in healthcare systems and for this technology and digitization will be the best tool.

He said based on the world experiences, data scientists should be working with not only the private sector but also with the public sector. Yusuf Hussain, former CEO Ignite, said COVID-19 had impacted the world at large.