China adopts high-tech to combat the coronavirus
March 24, 2020 Category Macro-economy, Weekly
China’s adoption of high technology is playing a vital role in reining in the coronavirus spread across the country, which are expected to be exported to help other countries fight against the virus, corporate representatives and analysts said. Domestic technology companies have developed specific technologies such as those for performing basic diagnostic functions, spraying disinfectants and conducting contactless delivery. China’s Alibaba Cloud announced it would offer free CT image analytics for COVID-19 to all countries and regions. Baidu told the Global Times that it launched online services such as medical and psychological consultations for overseas users. Chinese agricultural drone-maker XAG said since the virus outbreak, it has tried to combine drones with ground robots to release disinfectants in public places to replace hand sprayers. “We have seen rising demand for such services and received increased overseas inquiries. For instance, our clients in South Korea and Vietnam have begun to explore our solutions,” the firm told the Global Times.
“Developed countries like the U.S. have edges in research and developing advanced technology, but that does not indicate their application to epidemic prevention has been widely promoted,” Dong Lei, Key Account Manager of Shanghai-based technology company Inventec said. “I heard that robots are used to take patients’ temperatures in hospitals in California, but as far as I know, no artificial intelligence (AI) or facial recognition is used to monitor or prevent the epidemic spread,” Jack Luo, who is in his 20s and lives in San Jose, California, said. “An online real-time tracking platform for COVID-19 information focusing on the U.S. and Canada, which many of my friends and I used, was developed by a Chinese firm,” he added.
Xu Yiya, Senior Vice President of Shanghai-based Xiao-i Robot Technology Co, told the Global Times that his company has offered inquiry services about epidemic information to users in more than 30 cities across China. Industry analysts said the export of such high-tech related experience will be helpful, but some Western countries may not buy it because they do not believe in China’s technology development. “We just started trying to use drones to spray disinfectant in China, and since other virus-hit countries still restrict the technology, it is hard to predict the prospects for exports,” XAG said.
Technology companies from China, including Huawei Technologies, are leveraging their technological prowess to help foreign nations. For instance, Huawei Cloud and artificial intelligence company Huiying Medical Technology Co are offering AI-enabled auxiliary diagnostic systems to hospitals in Ecuador. Zheng Yelai, President of Huawei Cloud, said: “The AI-enabled system can help doctors make faster, more accurate decisions on whether patients are infected with the virus.” According to the company, it took only 14 hours for Huawei and Huiying to set up the AI-enabled system in a hospital in Ecuador. Hospitals in dozens of countries are contacting Huawei Cloud for possible cooperation to use the AI-enabled auxiliary diagnostic systems. Shi Yuxin, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, said that computerized tomography (CT) imaging is an important reference for the diagnosis and treatment of novel coronavirus pneumonia. AI-enabled systems can help classify the pneumonia caused by the virus according to its severity, and calculate the burden on patients’ lungs. Traditional quantitative analysis performed by humans usually requires up to six hours, but the AI system is able to perform the same task within a minute, Shi said.
The Hangzhou-based digital health company WeDoctor has launched an international traditional Chinese medicine epidemic prevention and control platform by partnering with the World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies. Integrating WeDoctor’s internet healthcare structure and the federation’s TCM medical resources, the platform aims to promote online consultation services to better serve people overseas, the China Daily reports.
The use of high-tech also had an effect on McDonald’s. The company will shut down all of its restaurants in the UK and Ireland as the coronavirus outbreak there escalates, but it kept operating when the coronavirus hit China hard. Experts said that China’s advanced digital economy and logistics system explained the difference. China’s McDonald’s and KFC used non-touch ordering services in restaurants and encouraged customers to order using mobile phone apps. On China’s McDonald’s mini WeChat App, for example, customers can order and pay in advance on their mobile phones and choose a time to pick up their meals, which greatly limits people-to-people contact at the counter during the ordering process. In 2019, Chinese banks handled 101.431 billion mobile payments, with a value of CNY347.11 trillion, an increase of 67.57% and 25.13% year-on-year, respectively, the Global Times adds.
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