Corona Virus Pandemic has been spread across 196 countries, and many countries even have placed strict lockdown to cut down the exponential spread of the virus. The mortality rate of the virus was very low at the start, but it is inclining day by day. China once the most affected region is slowly getting back into the norm while Europe and the South Asian region is now the most affected. The situation demands social isolation, which is not always the best way to cope with the additional stress of the situation.
A few days ago, we talked about how one can kill time while staying at home. Netflix party, games, and Online courses seem the best way to take the lethargic day head-on. It not only kills time but also kills the spread of the virus, so we are winning in both worlds.
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Now, if you want to be socially active while staying at home, then COVID Global Hackathon should be one of your concerns. It serves as an opportunity for the developers to develop software solutions that can socially and economically impact the world during the crisis. The project is started by Devpost, where they are asking the innovators and creators to build technological solutions that can aid the healthcare systems. The emphasis is on some of the challenged areas sourced through health partners, including the WHO and the scientists at the Chan Zuckerburg BioHub.
The Hackathon is supported by almost all of the social media platforms, including but not limited to Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Twitter, so if you want to play your part head over to the link here and sign up.
Focused areas and themes
The only focus of the Hackathon is to use technological advancements in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. Some examples from the WHO includes the proper spread of knowledge, prevention, and isolation throughout the population.
Developers can work on many themes that can revolve around the treatment, prevention, cure, healthcare systems, business, community development, and even entertainment. The main reason for a generalized working area is to allow more and more people to participate in the Hackathon so that an efficient solution to the situation can be achieved. We know that many health care officials are already working on vaccine formation which will take at least a whole year for development, testing or distribution phase, a probable solution to this problem would be to use AI as a helping hand. It was only one example you can find many on their home page here.
The main themes of the Hackathon are as follows. These are not hard and fast work themes developers are welcome to think out of the box and come up with a better solution.
Health
Address and provide solutions to the problems that the health officials are facing these days. These include projects that allow people to take care of themselves at their homes if they are facing any symptoms. It also includes projects that will aid health officials in diagnosing the Corona Virus on a mass scale as this problem is getting out of hand in the poor countries due to lack of kits and equipment.
Vulnerable population
Another theme is to make software solutions to aid those who are at the most risk of getting infected. These older people and the immunocompromised people should be at the center of any community so that these are better taken care of.
Education
Many universities and schools are closed due to lockdown. The developers can work to aid in the studies of the students by developing tools that can help them in studying while staying at home.