China beefs up novel coronavirus tracking and prevention with big data

Chinese mobile operators and technology firms are supporting the tracking and prevention of pneumonia caused by novel coronavirus, with the help of big data.

Telecom giant China Unicom has set up a group-wide team of more than 100 big data technicians and experts to provide data analysis and intelligent applications to the government using algorithm models.

It provides big data analysis reports on epidemic-related population flow to 31 provincial traffic and health departments.

He Qinghua, an official with the National Health Commission, highlighted the importance of big data in improving the level of tracking.

GeTui, a smart data provider, has studied the number of people traveling from Wuhan, the hardest-hit city of the epidemic outbreak in Central China, and released their distribution density in a heat map.

Fang Yi, CEO of GeTui, said the travelers from Wuhan were distributed across a wide range of rural areas, especially in Henan, Hunan and Sichuan provinces, according to the heat map.

An official document has asked for efforts to mobilize communities and village-level authorities to launch grid-based health management, tracking the health of residents with the help of big data and the public.

Yonyou, a software and cloud services company, has updated its cloud service platform, using the Internet of Things and big data technologies to connect the supply and demand of medical resources between medical enterprises and hospitals at the center of the epidemic.

By Jan 29, the platform had released the demand for medical supplies of 30 hospitals, involving protective clothing, masks, goggles, surgical gowns and shoe covers.

Yonyou has gathered more than 50,000 security protection suppliers on its platform to provide corresponding supply channels with big data analysis, said the company.

From a heat map to a hospital map, from traffic information to epidemic news, Chinese technology firms have given full play to their advantages to provide the public with knowledge on the epidemic through big data mining.

Before going out, one can use the Baidu Map application to check the population density in business districts, hospitals and transportation hubs, in order to avoid crowded places, which is key to preventing and controlling the epidemic.

When medical treatment is necessary, one can check the list of nearby hospitals that have set up fever clinics using Baidu Map or WeChat.

Staying at home, one can learn the latest epidemic news via smartphone. Epidemic information and protection knowledge collected with big data has been shared with nearly 80 million users every day through Toutiao, a popular news feed mobile app in China.