How technology is helping to combat Coronavirus?

Mankind across the world was quite busy and working at their own pace towards respective personal and professional goals, until Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak became the headline of almost every National and International news. A virus that is said to be originated from Wuhan, China started spreading in several countries like wildfire in no time, leaving people baffled and distressed. Amid all these, what stood as a positive factor is that we are living in a time when technological development is at its peak, enabling researchers and organizations to leverage technology to fight against the spread of COVID-19.

Setbacks

Emerged as a global calamity and declared as a pandemic by WHO, the virus is resulting in numerous cities pounder lockdown across more than 100 countries, collapsed supply lines, economies derailed and impacting millions of lives. In this hour of pandemic, no matter how much developed a country is, probably none of them are prepared enough for this unanticipated disaster. The global economic impact is so grave that, recently UN Conference on Trade and Development has predicted that the coronavirus outbreak might cost the global economy upto $1–2 trillion in 2020.

“The Chinese economy went down by 10 percent of GDP in the first quarter of 2020. The estimates for the US and Europe will be in the same magnitude. There will be a double-digit drop in the first quarter.”

– Raghuram Rajan, Former RBI governor and Professor of Finance, University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business

And particularly in a developing country like India, which also happens to be the fifth-largest economy in the world, the ‘stay at home’ or social distancing solution may not leave a favorable impact on the overall economy of the country.

In India, apparently, over 50 percent companies are experiencing impact on their operations and nearly 80 percent have witnessed a decline in cash flows. This clearly depicts the upcoming struggles that the job market in India is going to experience.

“There was a strong hope of (economic recovery) in the last quarter of the current fiscal. However, the coronavirus epidemic has made the recovery extremely difficult in the near to medium term.”

-The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)

Considering all the research and predictions made, it is clear that the pandemic will have a devastating impact on all sectors or industries making economic loss utterly uncertain.

Global Recession

Amidst theCOVID-19 outbreak, the global recession has already started becoming the talk of the town, where industry experts are assuming that the job market will have to vividly bear the brunt of the virus in the long-term.

• As per theInternational Monetary Fund, a global recession caused by coronavirus pandemic in 2020 could be far worse than the one triggered by the global financial crisis of 2008–2009.
• International Labour Organization (ILO) forecasted that the COVID-19 pandemic might increase global unemployment by almost 25 million jobs, considering the ongoing economic and labor crisis. It also said that there could be an intensification of underemployment on a large scale.
• Employees may have to face delayed increments and bonuses as employers are subjected to confront the huge loss caused by the outbreak.
• Recruitment of top executives is likely to be delayed or pushed back by at least a quarter, as the pandemic is forcing companies to postpone projects and instead look for ways to recover the loss caused in business.

“This is no longer only a global health crisis, it is also a major labor market and economic crisis that is having a huge impact on people.”

-ILO Director — General Guy Ryder

Technology as the Ray of Hope

However, if there is one silver lining in this situation that ought to be the profound presence of technology and innovation. Today, many industries including healthcare are well-equipped with necessary technological equipment and innovations, which enables achieving outcomes related to healthcare goals faster.

• While during SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak in 2002, the scientists took more than a year to unveil the genome of the virus, COVID-19 or the coronavirus genome was identified within a month’s time. The credit, of course, goes to tech advancements.
• Advanced analytics is helping considerably in tracking the spread of disease despite the vulnerable populations through which it is traveling. In fact, with the help of technology, renowned social media platforms like Facebook, Google, and Twitter is helping to understand and eliminate misinformation about the virus.
• Robotics or automated technologies has been deployed in several locations of China for contactless delivery, performing basic diagnostic functions and distributing essentials among the public, with the aim of minimizing the risk of cross-infection. In Kerala too, the use of robots was seen for distributing masks and sanitizers.
• Artificial Intelligence is as well playing a significant role in combating the coronavirus- from helping researchers to ease analyze scientific papers on the virus to gaining insights on a huge set of scholarly articles. The White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy recently asked researchers to utilize AI and analyze about 29,000 scholarly articles for answering pivotal questions about the coronavirus.

There are many more such instances related to the current situation where technology is emerging as a lifesaver and the best possible hope to come out from the same. However, it will be not right if we don’t mention technology being the rescue for the companies and employees who are able to do their office works from home without any restrictions and seamlessly. It would have been next to impossible for employees to stay home and work if there were no tools for better connectivity and performing the tasks efficiently.

Make the Shift to Virtual Learning

While we showed you the estimated global recession that is ought to happen when the outbreak ends, skilling and upskilling can help professionals retain their jobs and can open job opportunities for the freshers. It is true that the job market is going to be way more competitive than it was before but no roadblocks can sustain if the employees are equipped with ample proficiencies that are required to thrive in a demanding work environment.

Those working in the IT sector are as well projected to face recession and job crunch due to the lockdown of different countries to stop spreading the virus. In this scenario, nothing will help well than taking up online IT Courses and Professional Certifications that will strengthen the value of IT professionals’ resume. Post, the withdrawal of the lockdown, companies can also take the plunge of organizing Corporate Training for its employees so that they remain updated with the new-age technical skills and bring more productivity to work.

Understanding the ongoing crisis and keeping the spirit high that everything is going to be alright soon, Global Knowledge Technologies is offering a wide-range of online training courses on in-demand skills by top OEMs which can be pursued by working IT professionals while completing their work commitments from the comfort of their homes. So, buckle-up and take the initiative to utilize your time productively instead of sulking on what cannot be changed and by embracing skill development training. Make sure when you get back to work, you return with added skills and certifications that will undoubtedly give your career an edge. Remain agile and in-demand always!