The Hamad Bin Khalifa University research institute has swiftly responded to the pandemic from the first week by developing a portfolio of applications and tools to address national and global priorities in the fight against COVID-19, with solutions ranging from digital health tools, analyzing data, and facilitating literature reviews, among many others.

 Dr. Ashraf Aboulnaga, Senior Research Director at Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) said that “Our system helped the health authorities with contact tracing for COVID-19 positive patients, especially in the first few weeks of the pandemic, before the Ehteraz app was deployed.”

 “Now that people are aware of social distancing and its importance in the way we respond to the pandemic, it is important for users and health authorities to be able to measure and analyze the degree of social distancing and contacts.” 

“QCRI has developed a web-based dashboard that computes this information based on Google data and displays a map showing the reduction or increase in visits for important locations in Doha. This is valuable data that is used by the health authorities in Qatar.’’

QCRI has partnered with several NGOs to extend this dashboard to other cities such as Kuwait, Beirut, Amman, Nairobi, and Lagos.

Dr. Ashraf Aboulnaga highlighted the importance of measuring social distancing at the scale of the entire country, such as places that are visited by people more than usual and which are visited less than usual. 

The Qatar Foundation research institute has also developed mobile phone apps that use GPS for contact-tracing to ensure quarantined people remain within their quarantine area, as well as an online self-assessment tool that is accessible from the web or mobile phones. 

Dr. Aboulnaga said, “The online self-assessment tool is based on a questionnaire that helps users assess their symptoms and decide their next steps, such as seeking medical help,”

The tool is a web-based tool and is based on the guidelines laid out by the World Health Organization and Hamad Medical Corporation. A key feature of the self-assessment tool is that it is multi-lingual. 

Dr. Aboulnaga said, This tool is available in 11 languages and the two most popular are Arabic and Hindi, this has been very successful with 1.3 million visits to date.’’

Besides this, QCRI has also modeled and visualized the evolution of the pandemic.

The research institute created a dashboard that summarizes data related to the pandemic in Qatar and the GCC countries which helps predict disease development. 

This dashboard is used by government health authorities in Qatar, and internally within the Qatar Foundation.

QCRI has also addressed false and inaccurate information that makes its way to social media  where a lot of wrong information about COVID-19 is created.

For any queries, or concerns related to COVID-19 in Qatar, the public can contact a 24/7 hotline set up by the Ministry. The hotline number is 16000 and is toll-free.

Here's everything you need to know about the virus, including ways to protect yourself.

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Source and cover image credit: Qatar Foundation