Table 1.

Applications of Emerging Technologies in the COVID-19 Pandemic.

S No	Emerging technology	Applications in the COVID-19 pandemic
	Artificial intelligence (AI)	•Detecting virus, individuals with fever, and suspected symptoms of COVID-19 through the integration of thermal imaging, AI, computer vision, and cloud computing and accordingly advice for the treatment. Further, this has brought down the time of genetic detection to minutes.
2	Cloud computing	•All necessary information is stored at a computing platform and made available to enable an enormous amount of computing power to the users with the help of the internet and helps in making real-time decisions in disease modeling. Software can be used with blockchain and other tools to model requirements of critical facilities at a different level, from the hospital to the nation.
3	Big data	•Provide storage capacity for extensive data of the population in a format that can be used efficiently for analysis and necessary action can be taken toward the prevention of disease transmission, movement, health monitoring, and prevention system
4	Telemedicine	•A patient can have a consultation from well-trained professionals on their medical conditions through video calls, avoiding the need for a hospital visit and thus helping the social distancing and man-to-man contact and disease transmission. However, these remote consultations are now possible with using better telecom infrastructure with virtual reality and augmented reality
5	Blockchain	•Algorithm help provides real-time information to all the strategic partners and traceability in the process of disease control and helps toward effective management of the supply chain
6	5G + smart applications	•The high-speed network allows real-time data of video and audio quality for patient data analysis, telemedicine, medical, and surgical intervention
7	Internet of things (IoT)	•All devices are connected to the internet in the hospital and strategic locations. Thus, these connected devices help to inform the medical staff of any errors and change of requirements during the treatment process (similar to the factories of the future).
8	Drones	•These unmanned vehicles controlled by remote location can undertake jobs of logistics providers and area surveillance and can also be used for disinfecting remote locations
9	Robotics	•Undertakes repetitive jobs with precision and reliability in the hazardous environment of infectious disease in and around the hospitals and can make an intelligent decision with inputs from the population data analyzed through AI
10	Modern enterprise video communications platform	•Application of the software helps in holding video and audio communications, chats, and webinars easily and quickly through large numbers of communication devices.
11	Additive manufacturing	•Undertakes manufacture of personalized devices for health-care workers and patients, using 3D printing technology for the COVID-19, whenever required.
12	Smartphone apps	•Uses high-speed network and help to track strategic locations, infected patients and registering the data and modeling of disease outcomes as per the application software and other technologies can also be integrated with the software.