Digital Response Framework for COVID-19 Pandemic Monitoring and Control in India
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Digital Response Framework for COVID-19 Pandemic Monitoring and Control in India Iqbal Hasan ( ihasan@nic.in ) Jamia Millia Islamia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6464-840X SAM Rizvi Jamia Millia Islamia Central University: Jamia Millia Islamia Abid Geelani GB Pant Hospital: Govind Ballabh Pant Hospital Research Keywords: Digital Surveillance, Pubic Health, COVID-19, Corona Virus, Digital Technologies Posted Date: August 31st, 2021 DOI: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-815744/v1 License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Read Full License
Hasan et al.
RESEARCH
Digital Response Framework for COVID-19
Pandemic Monitoring and Control in India
Iqbal Hasan1* , SAM Rizvi1
and Abid Geelani2
Abstract
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is atypical
in scale, perseverance, and geographical
progression throughout the world in recent history.
It is declared a public calamity in India wherein the
Prime Minister’s Office is directly associated with
every aspect of surveillance, control, and relief
measures. This paper aims to present the digital
response framework for management, surveillance,
and control of the COVID-19 crisis across the
country. The paper also presents technological
adoption by various states and union territories and
analysis of COVID cases in India.
Methods: The Ministry of Home Affairs and its
various organizations such as the National Disaster
Management Authority, and Ministry of Health and
Family Welfare are managing various authoritative
and administrative activities, and Ministry of
Electronics & Information Technology through
National Informatics Centre (NIC) are providing
technological solution to manage the COVID-19
pandemic in India. The NIC is playing a crucial role
to develop and manage digital solutions for
surveillance and control of COVID-19 in India.
Results: On analysis of COVID 19 data of
reported confirmed, recovered, and deceased cases
across India in various states, it is observed that
Maharashtra was most affected followed by
Karnataka, Kerala, Delhi and other states.
Conclusion: The technological solutions
developed, implemented, managed by NIC making
up the digital response framework for monitoring,
surveillance, and control of COVID-19 are standard
for India and proved to be effective in combating
the COVID-19 pandemic and are widely used in
central, state, and local governing bodies.
Keywords: Digital Surveillance; Pubic Health;
COVID-19; Corona Virus; Digital Technologies
Hasan et al. Page 2 of 18
1 Introduction vaccine development facilities, and financial help and
The current COVID-19 pandemic has detrimentally other relief packages for poor and low-income fami-
impacted the entire world. The first known instance lies. The government is widely taking the advantage
of the COVID-19 disease was reported in Hubei terri- of digital technologies and deploying new, smart and
tory in China in November 2019 [1]. Subsequently, a innovative technological solutions to facilitate vari-
cluster of COVID-19 instances were reported on 31st ous services in response to this global crisis. Govern-
December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and it was noti- ment institutions are adopting digital tools to support
fied to the World Health Organization (WHO) China widespread dissemination of information, track real
[1, 2]. Later, on 30th January 2020, India reported time disease transmission, create virtual meetings, and
its first COVID-19 case [3] which was only a tip of provide medical and treatment facilities to patients.
the iceberg. Quickly, the COVID 19 disease spread Besides COVID 19 related essential function and ser-
almost every region in the world, threatening health vices, government bodies are also adopting digital tools
systems and governments worldwide. Governments all and technologies to keep the pace of learning, teach-
around the world are adopting various measures to ing, legal, transport, economic, social, and many other
limit the spread of the coronavirus and confine the services for public welfare, and are working in coor-
disease within the specific region to prevent further dinative, collaborative, and collective manner to limit
escalation of the number of cases. Different Measures the spread and manage the risk of COVID 19, and re-
such as social distancing, partial or complete lockdown sume the economic and social activates to its normalcy.
and the banning of the large gathering area have been However, considering all these things, a digital surveil-
followed and continuing to follow in many countries. lance and management framework is essential to com-
The overall goal of these initiatives is to isolate the in- bat a pandemic, effectively utilize the resources, and
fected individuals to prevent the spread of this highly priorities various healthcare and management activi-
contagious disease. The biggest challenge is to track ties. This paper presents a digital response framework
and isolate the infected individuals. However, in this for surveillance and control of COVID 19 in India high-
digital era, various digital technologies are helping a lot lighting ways India has adopted and integrated digi-
to fight the pandemic by providing means for track- tal technologies for pandemic planning, management,
ing, isolations, surveillance, control and preventions. monitoring, surveillance, prevention, and control. The
Containment of COVID 19 is the first priority by all paper presents the adopted and deployed technologies
the governments around the world to tackle the spread by various government bodies, central ministries, pub-
of this highly contagious disease. In India the public lic health departments, state government departments,
health and sanitation comes under state and local gov- and district and local bodies for contact tracing, quar-
ernments whose responsibility is to formulate legisla- antine management, testing, and health care facilities.
tion for public health. However, in this unprecedented As a part of the framework, the paper covers the or-
time of COVID 19 pandemic, the union government ganizational hierarchy combating the pandemic crisis
whose legal responsibility is to manage quarantine and in India in addition to the best technological initia-
interstate migration, plays important role to fight and tives by various state and central agencies. We hope
contain the corona virus. In the wake of the rising num- it would be worthwhile for governments around the
ber of cases and death tools the Indian government world to fight the highly contagious disease.
has taken several precautionary, informative, techno-
logical, medical and financial steps to fight against the 2 Related Works
deadly virus. On March 24, 2020, a complete 21-day Rapid dissemination of the highly contagious corona
lockdown was announced by the prime minister for virus disease has necessitated the Government and
the entire nation prohibiting the movement of peo- other stakeholders to take various initiatives to con-
ples from their houses and issued a comprehensive tain its spread. Researchers around the world together
guideline to contain the COVID 19 pandemic in the with academia and industry are working on various
country. The government soon initiated dissemination tools and techniques to limit its spread or confine into
of authentic information about the virus, its spread, a specific area. The authors in [4] discussed about
control and preventive measures, various guidelines, the role of IoT, Blockchain, 5G in managing its im-
helpline numbers, registered COVID 19 cases, and pact, as it placed government around the world in a
death tool, through the Ministry of Health’s official precarious position and highlights the impact on the
website. Moreover, the government has designed vari- global economy to the direct health implications as-
ous diagnostic and treatment centers, isolation wards, sociated with the outbreak of COVID-19. Moreover,
*
authors in [4] explored the use of technologies such as
Correspondence: ihasan@nic.in
1
Department of Comuter Science, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India the Internet of Things (IoT), Unmanned Aerial Ve-
Full list of author information is available at the end of the article hicles (UAVs), blockchain, Artificial Intelligence (AI),
Hasan et al. Page 3 of 18
and 5G, among others, to help mitigate the impact of as the COVID-19 outbreak in China. The underlying
the COVID-19 outbreak. Pham et al. [5] emphasized mathematical model in the framework is the individ-
the importance of AI and Big Data responding to the ual Susceptible-Exposed- Infective-Removed (iSEIR)
COVID-19 outbreak and preventing the severe effects model, which is a set of differential equations. The
of the pandemic. They [5] presents applications of AI paper [13] discusses the response of public health to
and Big data in fighting against COVID-19 and high- the COVID-19 outbreak in china and for this taken
light challenges and issues associated with state-of-the- action accordingly which demonstrated the impor-
art solutions, and finally come up with recommenda- tance of transparency, surveillance, and testing lab-
tions for the communications to effectively control the oratories during an outbreak. Ye et al. [14] devel-
COVID-19 situation. Mondal et al. [6] described differ- oped a technical framework to respond to the COVID-
ent aspects of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), 19 epidemic from a health informatics perspective.
presented a visualization of the spread of the infec- They [14] collected health-related information to un-
tion, and discussed the potential applications of data derstand the actions taken by the health informatics
analytics on this viral infection. They [6] have high- community in China during the COVID-19 outbreak
lighted several factors including COVID-19 origin, its
and developed a health information technology frame-
transmission capacity, its symptoms. Researchers have
work for epidemic response based on health informa-
also discussed about Smart health systems such as E-
tion technology-related measures and methods. Wear-
Quarantine [7] for health services workers who deal
able smart devices like IoT-Q band [15], and Smart
with Covid-19 patients as it measures patient’s tem-
Themormeters [16], drones such as Thermal Imaging
perature, respiratory rate, pulse rate, blood pressure,
and time which helps in monitoring corona virus pa- Drone [17], Disinfectant Drone [18], and Surveillance
tients of worst cases and saving mild cases at homes Drone [19], automatic and telerobots [20] are devel-
[7]. Zhang et al. [8] described a large-scale agent- oped to limit and confine the spread of disease. Sim-
based model for epidemic prediction in the context of ilarly, researchers in [21] developed a graphical smart
the metropolitan area of Beijing, where a microscopic health system for physicians who can remotely visu-
public transport system is simulated and integrated alize the patient’s data. Likewise, smart medical sys-
with the agent-based model. This public transporta- tems for hospitals to monitor patients’ health status
tion component is microscopic as they [8] modelled all proposed by many researchers [22, 23]. Most of the ear-
lines and stops for both the metro and the bus system lier works on healthcare wearable are based on fitness
in Beijing. Through this component, agents can realis- tracking [24, 25]. Governments all around the world
tically ’travel’ to their destinations and the component are taking necessary steps to curb the spreading of
will provide accurate travel routes and durations. Mo- the highly contagious COVID-19 disease using vari-
bile applications technology has been leveraged in a ous means of digital, smart, and intelligent technolo-
number of ways to control the spread of COVID-19, gies [26–28]. In the same line Government of India is
including to support knowledge translation [9]. Mobile also taking various initiatives to monitor and control
applications are accessible, acceptable, easily adopted, the threat incurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic
and have the ability to support social distancing ef- through effective surveillance.
forts. Moreover, for infectious disease pandemic plan-
ning and response, Web app such as ISIS [10] is de-
3 Digital Response Framework
signed to support networked epidemiology – the study
The COVID 19 pandemic is posing a great challenge to
of epidemic processes over social contact networks.
This system can handle airborne infectious diseases the public healthcare systems, transportations, medi-
such as influenza, pertussis, and smallpox. cal and clinical systems, and emergency response man-
Machine learning and cloud computing are also be- agements of the governments’ worldwide. The ap-
ing used to identify the patterns and predict the trends proaches used by the governments to combat the pan-
of COVID 19 spread. Tuli et al. [11] discussed an im- demic and respond to the outbreak largely depend on
proved mathematical model to analyze and predict the the availability of resources, medical and healthcare fa-
growth of the epidemic. They have applied an ML- cilities, and collective and collaborative efforts of gov-
based improved model to predict the potential threat ernment bodies. Government bodies including central,
of COVID-19 in countries worldwide. It can be de- state, district, and local bodies in their close coordina-
ployed on a cloud computing platform for a more ac- tion are playing their key roles to mitigate the impact
curate and real-time prediction of the growth behavior of pandemic in different sectors by developing, imple-
of the epidemic. Yuan et al. [12] establish a general menting, and deploying new digital systems, tools, and
framework for predicting the so-called critical “Turn- techniques. In India, Prime Minister’s office (PMO) is
ing Period” in an infectious disease epidemic such the nodal authority to provide secretarial assistance
Hasan et al. Page 4 of 18
to prime ministers to manage and coordinate govern- Disease Informatics and Research (NCDIR), and In-
ment and his office. While National Informatics Cen- dian Society of Clinical Research (ISCR) to formulate
tre (NIC) is the core organization that provides digital strategies and fight against COVID 19.
technology solutions, Information and Communication Prime Minister’s Office (PMO): Prime Minis-
Technology (ICT), and eGovernance support to the ter’s Office comprises immediate staffs with which the
governments at various level. Figure 1 presents the lay- Prime Minister of India directly communicates and
ered architecture of the various organizational hierar- various supporting staff at different levels that report
chy involved in surveillance, control, and management and coordinate the Prime Minister. PMO is led by
of the pandemic in India. The detailed description of Principal Secretary to provide secretarial assistance
each organization bodies involved to tackle COVID 19 and help the Prime Minister to coordinate with var-
challenges is presented in the following sub sections. ious ministries that include cabinet ministers, minis-
ters with independent charges, and the state ministers.
3.1 Government Bodies Combating against COVID 19 PMO office is leading India’s fight against the deadly
COVID 19 disease and coordinating with various min-
The government of India is taking all necessary mea-
istries and top organizations including the Ministry
sures to fight against the COVID 19 pandemic and
of Home Affairs, Ministry of Health and Family Wel-
working together in partnership with World Health Or-
fare (MoHFW), National Disaster Management Au-
ganization (WHO) to effectively contain the COVID
thoring (NDMA), Ministry of Electronics and Informa-
19 in India.
tion Technology (MEITY), and other concerned min-
World Health Organization: World Health Or-
istries. The Prime Minister (PM) of India with the
ganization is a United Nations agency responsible for
help of PMO is continuously interacting with vari-
universal healthcare with an objective to ensure uni- ous stakeholders and monitoring India’s fight against
versal health coverage, monitor public health emer- COVID 19. The PM is regularly reaching out to var-
gencies, coordinates responses during health emergen- ious State Governors, Chief Ministers, Health Min-
cies, provide better health and well-being, and serve isters, and other stakeholders such as COVID war-
the vulnerable. WHO directs and coordinates inter- riors (e.g. doctors, nurses, health workers, and sanita-
national health within the UN system to the mem- tion staff), Pharma Sectors, and AYUSH Practitioners
ber countries, and addresses health issues related to through telephonically, video conferencing, or virtual
communicable and non-communicable diseases. It sets meetings to get feedback and suggestions, and encour-
guidelines and health standards internationally and as- age their efforts to fight against the menace of highly
sists Governments in strengthening the health services contagious COVID 19. PMO through various meet-
and works towards eradicating epidemic, endemic, or ings review the preparedness and response on this pan-
pandemic (1). WHO and the Government of India con- demic crisis and takes important decisions in partner-
sistently have worked together to eradicate Polio and ship with state governments to implement rapid test-
made India Polio free. With the same might, dedica- ing, isolation, and quarantine facilities at all parts of
tion, and sincerity, WHO is supporting India through the country. Moreover, to create awareness and dis-
valuable guidance and contributions to fight against seminate information’s including advisories PMO of-
COVID 19 and contain its spread. WHO with its ded- fice guides Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
icated team tirelessly working across the country with to collaborate and work in cooperation with Ministry
state governments to strengthen the health systems of Health, Ministry of Human Resource Development
and proactively involved in COVID 19 response mea- (MHRD), and NDMA. The PMO office is also taking
sures including epidemiological data collection, capac- care of other activities such as providing e-learning fa-
ity building, contact tracing, hospital preparedness, cilities to help teachers and students to have access of
laboratory diagnosis, community engagements, and quality education at the time of lockdown as closing of
control and prevention of infections. WHO India team schools and colleges have caused huge loss to student’s
have trained doctors, nurses, and paramedics to man- precious learning times. Moreover, PMO monitors of
age COVID 19 at Sardar Patel COVID Care Centre all the preparedness and responses, law and order is-
(SPCCC), which is one of the world’s largest COVID sues, and various relief measures during the COVID
19 care center operated by Indo-Tibetan Border Police 19 crisis.
(ITBP) personnel. Further, WHO is consistently work- Digital technologies have become a backbone to con-
ing and guiding state governments and various insti- duct all the activities including interaction, virtual
tutions such as National Institute of Disaster Manage- meetings, video conferencing, and dissemination of in-
ment (NIDM), Ministry of Home Affairs, Indian Coun- formation. PMO has initiated many steps to lever-
cil of Medical Research (ICMR), National Centre for age the benefits of digital resources, mainstream me-
Hasan et al. Page 5 of 18 dia, and social media to combat the COVID 19 cri- (1). On February 4, 2020, NDMA issued an advisory to sis. One of the great initiatives by PMO is a citizen States and Union Territories to disseminate guidelines engagement platform MyGoV to crowdsource gover- on travelling, maintaining hygiene and avoiding the nance ideas through the active participation of citi- crowding places, and enhancing quarantine and iso- zens. Launched on July 26, 2014, MyGoV is hosted lation facilities across the country. To track the geo- and managed by NIC and works as an important in- graphical distribution of COVID 19 risk and the mi- terface for interaction of government with the citizens. grant labours movement, NDMA established a GIS- MyGoV has become one of the leading sources of in- enabled dashboard that combine and visualize infor- formation about COVID 19 providing daily updates mation from different data sources with a common lo- about the number of active cases, deaths, testing sta- cation reference. The GIS dashboard displays the ex- tus, state-wise COVID status, response and manage- isting cumulative number of confirmed, recovered, and ment guidelines, and other COVID 19 related informa- deaths because of COVID 19 in India and across var- tion. ious states. It also displays GIS maps, pie charts, line Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (Mo- graphs, and bar charts of the cumulative number of HFW): Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is re- confirmed cases in various states and across India that sponsible for formulating health policies and dealing helps for planning and management of COVID 19 dis- with healthcare including public health awareness, im- tribution at state and national level. munization, preventive medicine, and various aspects Ministry of Electronics and Information Tech- of health and family welfare. MoHFW and its sup- nology (MEITY): Ministry of Electronics and Infor- porting institutions regularly release clinical and non mation Technology is a Govt. of India agency respon- clinical guidelines for control and preventive measures sible for promoting e-Governance, inclusive and sus- to combat against COVID 19 and limit its spread. Mo- tainable growth of electronics and IT-ITES industries, HFW has an objective to provide universal access to development of human resources through e-learning, healthcares services in an equitable and affordable way enhancing digital services and providing secure cy- across all sections of the society. MoHFW presents reg- berspace. It promotes and executes different policies ular daily briefings of the COVID 19 information, GIS associated with IT and IT-enabled services, and helps mapping of disease hotspots, and access to real-time various departments to facilitate e-infrastructures. It data about COVID cases and deaths across various is a premier agency to build electronics and IT prod- states and regions. ucts to counter the COVID 19 pandemic. National In- National Disaster Management Authority formatics Center (NIC) is one of its organizations re- (NDMA): The National Disaster Management Au- sponsible for setting up of ICT infrastructure and digi- thority is a government organization headed by the tal solutions to support government at different levels. Prime Minister of India with a vision to build disaster MEITY also facilitates to produce products such as resilient India through proactive, sustainable and tech- low-cost polymer swab for COVID testing kits, anti- nology driven strategy. NDMA is responsible for plan- viral and anti-bacterial masks, plasmonic portable sen- ning, policy making, and formulating guidelines for sor for covid 19 virus antigens, and digital thermome- disaster management to safeguard effective response ters to help government fight against COVID 19. to disasters (1). NDMA approves national plans pre- Directorate General of Health Services pared by departments or ministries of Govt. of India (DGHS): Directorate General of Health Services is and coordinates the enforcement and implementation an organization associated with MoHFW that provides of disanster management policies and plans. Moreover, technical suggestions on all medical and public health NDMA also considers various measures including pre- affairs to MoHFW. It coordinates with health direc- vention, mitigation, and preparedness of disasters, and torates of states and union territories to implement capacity building to deal with adverse situations dur- national health and family welfare programs and su- ing disasters or natural clamities. NDMA approves na- pervises the hospitals under central governments and tional plans prepared by departments or ministries of addresses the public health concerns. Govt. of India and coordinates the enforcement and State Governments: State governments in India implementation of disaster management policies and have proactively responded to contain spread of the plans. Moreover, NDMA also considers various mea- COVID 19 pandemic through various means such sures including prevention, mitigation, and prepared- as declaration of emergency, restriction of movement ness of disasters, and capacity building to deal with of peoples, closure of institutions and public places, adverse situations during disasters or natural calami- and prevention of mass gatherings. It is the consti- ties. Because of its scale and complexity, COVID 19 tutional mandate of state governments, local govern- has become a disaster of unusual proportions in India ments, and municipalities to coordinate during public
Hasan et al. Page 6 of 18
health emergencies and collectively fight to contain the District Health Officers (DHO): At the district
outbreak of COVID 19. As the “public health and san- level, the District Health Officer (DHO) manages the
itation ” comes under state list of Indian constitution, public health affairs and is assisted by one or two as-
it is the responsibility of individual states to take ef- sistant DHOs. The public health authorities in the lo-
fective measures to contain the spread of the disease. cal area work through a network of healthcare centers
States are using their own machinery and resources to consisting of Primary Health Centers, sub-centers, and
fight against the deadly COVID 19 pandemic and some dispensaries. All these centers are managed and super-
states are more successful than the other states due vised by DHOs, additional DHOs and assistant DHOs.
to their disparity in the actions and measures taken District Surveillance Officers (DSO): All the
to contain the disease. Rajasthan’s Bhilwara model to disease-related surveillance activities at the peripheral
identify, isolate, test, and treatment is a widely ac- level are managed and coordinated by district surveil-
claimed model to contain the spread of the disease and lance officers. Each district has its district surveil-
have been widely accepted in many district of other lance units (DSUs) that receive surveillance-related
Rajasthan and other states. The Kerala government’s data about diseases and transmit them to state/central
prompt response and quick deployment of resources, surveillance units. DSUs coordinate rapid response and
active surveillance at various levels, risk communica- training activities, collate and analyze collected data,
tion, and community engagement helped to cotain the monitor the trends, and sends regular feedback to
disease. the reporting units. Each DSU is headed by a DSO,
State Disaster Management Authority who assess the disease surveillance status and report
(SDMA): According to the disaster management act them to the District collector, CMO, and Zila Parishad
2005[1] , all the states and UTs have been provided Chairman. Moreover, DSO ensures timely response
the right to constitute state disaster management and action taken, reports are sent to state authorities,
authority (SDMA) with its own advisory committee training and capacity building, and regular feedback
to formulate state policy, guidelines, and plans in from the district and peripheral units.
coordination with NDMA for preparedness and miti-
gation measures to combat any disaster. In addition, 3.2 Government of India’s Health Department
the state government is responsible to constitute a Initiatives with NIC as Technology Partner
state executive committee to coordinate and monitor The Government of India (GoI)’s first step to curb
the implementation of policies, examine vulnerable the spread of COVID-19 was the screening of air pas-
disaster-prone regions, and evaluate preparedness and sengers coming from infected countries and tracing of
response measures in any threatening disasters or such positive cases along with their travel history. However,
situations. During the current covid 19 pandemics, the situation started worsening by the end of Febru-
Indian state governments have responded actively ary 2020. There felt a need for a dedicated system to
by invoking the disaster management act 2005 along track and trace positive cases and isolate them to pre-
with the declaration of emergencies, restriction of vent the spread of infection in the large masses. GoI
movements, closure of institutions and public places, started taking the benefit of technology for detection,
and many other measures to restrain the spread of prevention, and control of the disease. Many mobile
the virus. SMDA in various states took important and portals were introduced for better covid-19 surveil-
decisions in implementing lockdown measures and en- lance and management. NIC, a technological partner
suring the supply of essential commodities. Moreover, of GoI, having its presence at the national, state, and
SDMA facilitated various means to collect funds and district-level helped to develop technological solutions.
contribute to state disaster relief funds (SDRF). The At the time of this covid-19 crisis, NIC played a
funds thus collected have been used to combat the pivotal role to combat the pandemic by providing
pandemic and help the needy persons. crucial e-Services to the Government and citizens
District Disaster Management Authority throughout the country. Many tools and digital
(DDMA): The DDMA is a district level body that solutions developed by NIC are functioning as the
works under the chairmanship of District Magis- milestone to deliver the government services to citi-
trates/Collectors/Deputy Commissioners besides an zens at the time of the covid-19 crisis. NIC has created
elected representative of local authority as co- a digitally-enabled ecosystem to assist government
and government-run institutions to discharge essential
chairman. The district authority is liable for planning,
management, coordination, and implementation of dis- services throughout the covid-19 triggered lockdown.
aster response and relief measures at district level. It provides plenty of services including video confer-
encing, e-office, web hosting, networking, messaging,
[1]
http://ndma.gov.in/sites/default/files/PDF/DM act2005.pdf
and round-the-clock IT supports to central, state,
Hasan et al. Page 7 of 18
and district administrations. The video conference smart solutions based on artificial intelligence, neural
services provided by NIC during this challenging time network, and machine learning techniques.
has helped to connect government officials without Digital technologies have been widely adopted and
any physical contact or exposure to address important integrated throughout the world for covid-19 manage-
matters. Moreover, NIC has developed systems for ment and response. From surveillance, contact trac-
monitoring and management of the covid-19 crisis by ing, testing, quarantine to essential services, medical
disseminating information, quarantine guidelines, and supplies, screening, and clinical management, digital
advisories. Moreover, online portals developed by NIC technologies have played a crucial role [29]. The gov-
such as COVID Warrior Portal[2] plays a crucial role ernment of India has taken many technological initia-
to support the availability of covid-warriors such as tives to combat the pandemic. Important technological
healthcare workers, doctors, nurses, and volunteers in initiatives are discussed in the following subsections.
critical situations. Many technology-enabled solutions
have been developed by NIC at various state levels to 3.3 COVID19 India Portal:
track, test, monitor, and treat COVID patients. The Covid19 India portal is a we portal developed by Cen-
Corona Sample Collection Monitoring System tre for Health Informatics, Ministry of Health and
developed by NIC Delhi, COVID-19 Test Sample Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India for
Management System by NIC Anantnag, Nurses maintaining records and situational updates of COVID
Registration and Tracking System by NIC Telan- 19 cases and deaths throughout the country. Besides
gana, Telemedicine Software by NIC Tripura, number of deaths, it maintains the records of number
Covid-19 Tracking & Monitoring System by NIC of confirmed, active, and discharged/cured/migrated
Uttarakhand, Covid-19 Quarantine Monitoring & cases. The portal contains a dashboard depicting
Tracking System by NIC West Bengal, Covid-19 district-wise analysis of the confirmed, active, recov-
Jagratha[3] by NIC Kerala COVID-19 Transmission ered, and deaths. The dashboard gives a comprehen-
Chain Prevention System’ by NIC Meghalaya, and sive view of health preparedness, testing, and case
similar systems by NIC Punjab, Telangana and other monitoring for effective decision making at this global
state NICs are important initiatives by NIC’s at crisis. The dashboard also facilitate the reporting of
various states. Moreover, district-level NIC units are surveillance, quarantine, ambulance availability, and
also playing a pivotal role in developing customized other logistic supports. The portal is also presents the
solutions for rural and urban areas. positive case management and hotspot analysis. More-
Besides various systems, NIC has also developed over, the portal is integrated with the Aarogy setu
many android-based mobile apps for monitoring, app to forecast and reports the emerging hotspots
surveillance, contact tracing, maintaining patient and Bluetooth and self assessment reports. Figure 2
records, monitoring ASHA workers’ visit to quar- presents the work-flow and various field entry updates
antined subjects, for applying medical-aids, ambu- of the Covid India Portal. The figure presents that the
lance, and pass for volunteers and vehicles’ movement. data updated to Covid India portal be free from re-
For example, Aarogya Setu app, Covid Care Kerala dundancies and multiple entries and ensures correct
app, COVID Suraksha app by NIC Hojai, Assam, and entries per confirmed covid 19 cases.
many similar apps have been developed for monitor-
ing, tracking, and surveillance purposes. 3.4 Aarogya Setu App:
Apart from monitoring and tracking systems, NIC The Aarogya Setu app[4] is a real-time patient track-
states units have developed various helpline portals ing application developed by the NIC, under the Min-
for lodging complaints and resolving issues associated istry of Electronics & Information Technology, Gov-
with covid lockdown and healthcare services. For ex- ernment of India. The app runs on both Android and
ample, NIC UP integrated the 24X7 UP CM Helpline iOS platforms and available in 11 different languages.
with Jansunwai Samadhan Portal, and NIC Srinagar It is an important tool for managing the ongoing pan-
has developed integrated COVID Call Centre for es- demic through contact tracking of individuals who may
sential services and grievance redressal. Besides these have come or likely to come in contact with an infected
many systems and applications for registration of mi- person. The app informs its users through notifica-
grant workers and stranded peoples, web applications tion whenever they come across COVID-19 positive
for online education and employment, issuing e-Passes, patients within the specified range of distance (e.g.,
and financially supporting government and affected 500 meters to 10 kilometers). It uses Bluetooth and
citizens. In near future, NIC will be leading to deliver GPS technology to track users’ movement and dis-
cover nearby infected individuals with a smartphone
[2]
https://covidwarriors.gov.in/
[3]
https://covid19jagratha.kerala.nic.in/ [4]
https://www.mygov.in/aarogya-setu-app/
Hasan et al. Page 8 of 18
having the app installed. The app also facilitates self- with various data centers and equipment managed by
assessment tests through a questionnaire to indicate NIC for transmission of data from the district levels to
the risk level and current health status of users. Based the central surveillance units. IDSP takes various con-
on the risk level the app recommends self-quarantine trol and preventive measures such as interactive elec-
at home or to approach public health authorities. The tronic discussion, training, e-learning, reviewing, and
app is people-centric and depends on input from the monitoring various activities.
user’s self-reporting of their health status, thus the ef-
fectiveness and accuracy of health assessment are com- 3.7 COVID-19 Vaccine Intelligence Network (CoWIN):
promised. However, due to its multitude of benefits, To make covid vaccine available to all the citizens the
such as self-assessment, social distancing tips, and self- central government has initiated COVID-19 Vaccine
quarantine guidelines, the app has received country- Intelligence Network (CoWIN) system, which is
wide acceptance. a digitalized platform to roll out and scale up na-
tionwide distribution of COVID vaccine. CoWIN is a
3.5 ICMR Portal: cloud-based IT solution and an extension of the on-
To manage sample collection for Rapid Antigen Test going electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network
(RAT) at authorized sample collection centers with the (eVIN) for planning, implementation, monitoring, and
help of authorized persons the government has devel- evaluation of COVID-19 vaccination across the coun-
oped a dedicated ICMR portal[5] for COVID 19 sam- try. The CoWIN system will help to track the ben-
ple collection and management. Only the authorized eficiaries of vaccination and monitor the utilization,
government officials can use the portal through mo- wastage, and coverage of the vaccination at the Na-
bile phones for transferring RAT and RT-PCR data tional, State, District, and Sub-District level. The sys-
to the ICMR portal for probable positive or negative tem has a CoWIN web site[9] for creation of users (ad-
cases. The registered users can view lab sample collec- mins, supervisor, and vaccinator) at state and district
tion centers/labs in their respective states or districts. levels, maintenance of vaccinator databases, session
More specifically, the portal is meant to monitoring of sites, and beneficiaries. The system also has a dedi-
actual data by the GOI and ICMR about the details of cated CoWIN mobile app[10] for registration of individ-
people who underwent RAT and RT-PCR tests. The ual beneficiaries and their authentication and record-
portal is integrated with RATI[6] and RT-PCR[7] app ing of vaccination. The vaccination will be initiated
for data collections. Figure 3 presents the data-flow in a phased manner on a priority basis starting from
between Aarogyasetu app and ICMR portal. the health care workers, frontline workers, and pop-
ulation at higher risk. Figure 4 presents the integra-
3.6 Integrated Disease Surveillance Program: tion of eVIN to CoWIN network. The eVIN contains
The Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme[8] an easy to use mobile app for recoding vaccine data
(IDSP) is a flagship program of the Government of and health worker updates, whereas the CoWIN ben-
India under the National Health Mission for all states eficiary management platform tracks beneficiaries and
and union teritories to strengthen the surveillance of manages vaccination session. All this information is fed
epidemic-prone diseases at the early phase of trans- into the cloud-based centralized server from which im-
mission. It involves the integration and decentraliza- portant information all visualized in near real-time the
tion of surveillance activities such as monitoring dis- information is through a dashboard of CoWIN web in-
ease trends, detecting any prevailing outbreaks, and terface. The CoWIN web interface visualizes the alert
responding to the identified outbreak at the earliest on low stock, expiry, and optimal recommendation of
phase of transmission. Under the IDSP, weekly dis- vaccines. It also visualizes the beneficiary vaccination
ease case counts as suspected, presumptive, and the status and other monitoring and coverage information.
confirmed cases are collected from the district, states,
and central surveillance units to identify the disease 3.8 RT-PCR App:
trends and seasonality. Once the rising trends or out- The union health ministry has launched a dedi-
breaks are identified in any specific region, the trained cated real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)
rapid response teams (RRTs) are assigned to diagnose mobile-based application for medical staff to fill the
and control the outbreak. It is an IT-enabled project sample collection data at the sample collection centers.
It is an important initiative to report sample collection
[5]
https://covid19cc.nic.in for various type of specimen to authorities at ICMR,
[6]
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rati/id1508539268 state governments, etc. in near real-time and minimize
[7]
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rt-
pcr/id1509701314 [9]
https://www.cowin.gov.in/
[8]
https://idsp.nic.in/ [10]
http://www.app.cowin.gov.in/
Hasan et al. Page 9 of 18
the sample collection error. Using only one entry point tools, dashboards, and mobile applications to combat
the information can be shared everywhere with the re- the pandemic crisis.
spective government authorities with minimum error Dedicated apps are being developed by various state
in the real-time reporting of data. The application is and district NIC units for sample collection centers
connected to the main database used by the health for conducting RT-PCR, antigen, and antibody tests
ministry and keeps updating automatically. To keep and updating the number of covid positive cases. The
track of the place of sample collection for RT-PCT developed COVID portals have the facility to login
test the app uses location parameters (latitude, and for district collectors, medical staff, health officers
longitude). (i.e. CMO, DMHO), and district surveillance officers
(DSOs). The dedicated COVID India portal facili-
3.9 COVID Facility App: tates the verification and updating of real-time positive
Covid facility app uses the individual health status and cases data and entry and updates of COVID care cen-
hotspots information from Aarogya Setu for optimized ters. Many other technological solutions that include
treatment, patient referral, and monitoring immediate systems for patients, home isolation, logistic infras-
utilization of infrastructure and essential supplies to tructure, quarantine management, corona test moni-
scale up health system preparedness and enable data- toring, containment zones, contact tracking, and death
driven decision making. tracking have been developed by various states.
Figure 5 represents the entire data flow and manage-
ment during covid 19 pandemics through various por- 4 Analysis of COVID 19 in India
tals and apps from the patients to the central reporting India is a country with a large geographic area
agency ICMR that monitors and coordinates different (3,287,240 square kilometres) and population (1.3 mil-
government offices and health agencies. It can be ob- lion). It has high regional, climatic, cultural, and pop-
served from the figure that the samples and data from ulation diversity. Due to these diversities, the infec-
the patients are fed and update at the collection point tion rate, its progression over time, and the preven-
by medical staff through the RT-PCR app. Thereafter, tive measures taken by various states, territories, and
these data throughout the country are collected at the the public are different. Moreover, the limited avail-
single sources in the ICMR database for testing to pre- ability of resources has resulted in the high spread of
vent any redundancy and multiple entries. This single new infection in some parts of the country. To anal-
source of data is now used for surveillance of the dis- yse the confirmed, recovered and deceased COVID 19
ease incidences and reporting of positive cases through cases, we consider the data from COVID 19 India web-
the centralized dashboard to various state and district site[11] . Figure 6 presents the daily number of COVID
surveillance officers. 19 cases across India. It presents the daily confirmed,
Table 1 presents the state-wise technological solu- recovered, and deceased cases from the first confirmed
tions, apps, and essential supports provided by var- case on January 30, 2021 to February 15, 2021. We
ious state and district level NIC centers to combat can observe from the figure that initially the num-
the COVID-19 crisis. The technological solutions and ber of daily confirmed and recovered cases increases
supports are provided in almost all sectors of govern- rapidly till the mid of September 2020. Thereafter, we
ment organizations that include health, labour, edu- observe that the number of daily confirmed and recov-
cation, food, transport, finance, justice, secretariats, ered cases continually decreases. Both the daily con-
and various ministries. NIC’s video conferencing ser- firmed and daily recovered cases show similar trends.
vices have been used widely across ministries, secre- Moreover, from the figure 6, we notice that the num-
tariats, cabinets, and other government organizations ber of recovered cases lags behind the number of daily
to conduct meetings for planning, management, pre- confirmed cases till the mid of September 17, 2020.
paredness, and monitoring of essential services during Thereafter, the number of daily recovered cases leads
this global crisis. NIC’s various technological services to the number of daily confirmed cases and continues
helped to connect government officials, covid warriors, to be leading. Thus, we see a high recovery from the
infection after mid-September 2020. We observe a fall
and other staff without coming into direct physical
in the number of confirmed cases and increase in recov-
contact and ensuring the least possible physical con-
ery, which may be due to an increase in medical facili-
tact and exposure to the infection. The table lists so-
ties, healthcare resources, and preventive measures by
lutions/services developed and implemented in various
states and union territories. Figure 6 also presents the
states and union territories and their detailed descrip-
daily deceased cases due to COVID 19. The daily num-
tions. It can be observed from the table that states and
ber of deceased is very small compared to the number
union territories have adopted different online and of-
fline technological solutions such as dedicated portals, [11]
https://www.covid19india.org/Hasan et al. Page 10 of 18
of confirmed case as can be seen from the line graph. health departments and the vaccination drive through-
More than 500 daily number of deceased were reported out the country. There is still a danger of the second
in the mid of July to the end October 2020. By the mid wave of COVID-19 in many states including Maharas-
of February 2021, we observe a great decrease in the tra because of irregularities in adopting the COVID-
number of daily confirmed and deceased cases. This is 19 precautionary guidelines and unlocking of public
because of the central government and various state’s places. Moreover, many people across the country are
proactive measures to control the spread and provide hesitating to get vaccinated because of some doubts,
essential healthcare and medical facilities. preconception, and fear of some adverse effects of the
Figure 7 presents bar graph of state-wise total num- vaccine. Further, the vaccination drive in India is still
ber of confirmed, recovered and deaths till Feb 15, not available for general public. The vaccination roll-
2021. From figure 7, we observe that most covid 19 out only meant for specific category of beneficiaries will
confirmed cases and deaths have been reported by Ma- leave chances of the spread of virus and may increase
harastra. The other most affected states include Kar- the infection.
nataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Delhi,
Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. To analyze state- 5 Conclusion
wise daily confirmed, recovered, and deceased cases Governments throughout the world are considering dif-
of the most affected states, we populated the line ferent measures and initiatives to tackle the COVID-19
graphs of the top five states. Figure 9, 10, 11, 12, pandemic crisis and attempting to restrict the loss of
and 13 present the daily confirmed, recovered, and de- human lives and economies. The government of India
ceased cases of most affected states. These figures show is levering digital solutions with the help of the tech-
the disease dynamics in Maharastra, Andhra Pradesh, nological expertise of NIC in giving cutting-edge solu-
Karnataka, Kerala, and Delhi. In most of the states in- tions to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper
fection started from the patients having travel history presents a digital response framework for surveillance
to any COVID-19 infected countries. Maharastra is the and control of COVID-19 in India and various other
most severely affected state with more than 2 million technological initiatives to fight against this global cri-
total number of confirmed cases till the mid of Febru- sis. It discusses the roles, essential supports, and tech-
ary 2020. From figure 9, we can observe that there is nical solutions under various governing bodies at dif-
an increasing trend of the daily confirmed number of ferent levels of governance. Moreover, the paper also
infected cases from mid of March to mid of Septem- presents the analysis of COVID-19 cases in various
ber 2021. Thereafter, the daily confirmed number of parts of India. With the help of NIC as a technology
infected cases shows a decreasing trend and the daily partner, the Government of India has developed and
recovery leads to the confirmed cases. Higher recovery implemented many apps, digital interfaces, and dash-
and decrease in the number of confirmed cases may be boards to combat this pandemic and limit its spread.
due to the state’s proactive measures to counter the
spread of the infection. Among all the states, Maha- List of Abbreviations
rastra has reported most deaths with more than 51 NIC: National Informatics Center
thousand deceased cases till the mid of February 2021. WHO: World Health Organization
However, we can observe from figure 9 that the num- IoT: Internet of Thing
ber of deceased is very low compared to the number of AI: Artificial Intelligence
daily confirmed cases. Many factors including different UAV: Unmanned Arial Vehicle
control and preventive measures by states, awareness RAT: Rapid Antigen Test
and precautionary measures, and a person’s immunity eVIN: Electronic Vaccination Intelligence Network
could be responsible for low deaths. Kerala observed CoWIN: COVID-19 Vaccination Intelligence Network
strict lockdown and was substantially able to control RRT: Rapid Response Team
the spread of infection and reported nearly four thou- IDSP: Intelligence Disease Surveillance Program
sand deaths in the mid of February 2021. We can ob-
serve from Figure 12 the trends of the disease dynam- Declaration
ics of Kerala in terms of daily confirmed, recovered,
Ethics approval and consent to participate
and deceased cases. Similarly, we draw meaningful in- Not applicable
sights about the disease dynamics from the increas-
Consent for publication
ing and decreasing trends of confirmed, recovered, and Not applicable
deceased cases for Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and
Availability of data and materials
Delhi. The infection rate in the year 2021 has decreased Data sharing not applicable as all the dataset used are available in public
because of various precautionary measures by state domain.Hasan et al. Page 11 of 18
Competing interests band to detect and track absconding covid-19 quarantine subjects. EAI
The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Endorsed Transactions on Internet of Things 6(21) (2020)
16. Chamberlain, S.D., Singh, I., Ariza, C.A., Daitch, A.L., Philips, P.B.,
Funding Dalziel, B.D.: Real-time detection of covid-19 epicenters within the
Not applicable united states using a network of smart thermometers. medRxiv (2020)
17. Mohammed, M., Hazairin, N.A., Al-Zubaidi, S., AK, S., Mustapha, S.,
Authors’ contributions Yusuf, E.: Toward a novel design for coronavirus detection and
The first author drafted the manuscript and conducted data analysis with diagnosis system using iot based drone technology. International
the technical inputs and expertise from other authors. Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation 24(7), 2287–2295 (2020)
18. Shaw, K.K., Vimalkumar, R.: Design and development of a drone for
Acknowledgements spraying pesticides, fertilizers and disinfectants. International Journal
The authors would like to thank Visvesvaraya PhD Scheme, MeitY, Govt. of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT), 1181–1185 (2020)
of India and Govt. of NCT Delhi for their support. 19. Ding, G., Wu, Q., Zhang, L., Lin, Y., Tsiftsis, T.A., Yao, Y.-D.: An
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Author details things. IEEE Communications Magazine 56(1), 29–35 (2018)
1
Department of Comuter Science, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India. 20. Tavakoli, M., Carriere, J., Torabi, A.: Robotics, smart wearable
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