As crores of Indians stay indoors to observe the nationwide 21-day lockdown, the big question on everyone’s minds is whether they have the symptoms of the novel coronavirus spreading havoc across the world.
A simple cough, cold, or fever could be enough to provoke such thoughts, and resultant anxiety.
Now, Reliance Jio has launched a symptom-checker that can estimate the level of risk that you have COVID-19, available for anyone to use.
The company tweeted, “Here's a simple way to check the symptoms. Click on the link to begin your self-test: https://bit.ly/Jio-SymptomChecker Stay Safe. Stay Connected. Stay Productive. .”
Here's a simple way to check the symptoms.
— Reliance Jio (@reliancejio) March 25, 2020
Click on the link to begin your self-test: https://t.co/4tvmT8oGaw
Stay Safe. Stay Connected. Stay Productive. #COVID19 #CoronaHaaregaIndiaJeetega #JioTogether #JioSymptomChecker pic.twitter.com/U9C6BMzNF9
The provided link will take you to a site, covid.bhaarat.ai, which will ask you a series of questions related to your symptoms and possible exposure to existing COVID-19 patients. Interestingly, the website requests access for the user’s location when the quiz is beginning.
The company had launched the #CoronaHaaregaIndiaJeetega campaign, for which this tool was developed. Reliance Jio board director Kiran Thomas told CNBC that “very powerful AI algorithms operate behind the scenes that are used to guide people step-by-step through the whole diagnosis process”, adding that AI algorithms analyse the data points being collected to generate a real-time map of how the situation is unfolding across India.
He said that MyJio allows the company to rapidly roll the tool out to a large audience and allow policymakers to respond quickly and channelise resources where they will be most-needed.
He added that the customer data being collected would be anonymised and stored.
The website also provides a list of testing centres and FAQs for common queries about the virus. It also has a section dealing with myths about the coronavirus, such as whether it can be defeated by eating garlic (no) or by using a hair dryer (also no). The answers were contributed by Dr Chetan Bhatt (MD General Medicine, DNB Gastroenterology), Dr Amrita Verma (MD General Medicine) and DR Shashikala Shivaprakash (MD Microbiology).
