New technology to detect people infected with coronavirus is going to be used by Abu Dhabi. In a first, the country will use face scanners at airports, malls, some residential areas and all land and air entry points to segregate covid positive patients in crowded areas.
Beginning Monday, Abu Dhabi will bring this technology into practice after a clinical trial consisting of 20,000 volunteers showed “a high degree of effectiveness”.
With a camera and a phone application, the technology can detect infections with an accuracy of 93.5 per cent. It measures electromagnetic waves that change when RNA particles of the virus are present in a human’s body, as per the report of state-owned WAM.
The scanner was developed in a research lab called the EDE Research Institute, a unit of the International Holding Co. And is located in Abu Dhabi itself.
Authorities brought the application of this technology into action from today as security personnel in malls were seen using it to check for signs that can deem a person to be covid positive without having to get them tested.
The mechanism of the scanner works by placing the reader within 5 metres of the people to be scanned. The device analyses every face and alerts the smartphone held by the operator through a message within seconds. Different coloured lights pop up indicating a subject’s condition. A green light means the person is negative for covid-19 while a red light implicates the person is positive. Blinking of a red light prohibits the person from entering the said area as they are potential covid patients. They will also be required to undergo an RT PCR test within 24 hours.
This EDE scanner will be used in conjunction with the other devices in routine like thermal scanners. It is being introduced following a trial of the technology in Ghantoot, Mussaffah and Yas Island, according to the AD Media Office’s statement of Sunday.
Though the capability of a heart scan to detect covid-19 has been questioned, the Mayo Clinic, US, recently published a research work, which found that covid-19 creates subtle electrical changes in the heart detectable by an AI-enabled electrocardiogram. If this holds true, an EKG could be a game-changer and present as a rapid and reliable screening test.
The research was based on data gathered from 4 continents and 14 countries and accurately detected a negative covid-19 infection in 91 per cent of people.
Speaking about the work, Dr Paul Friedman, chair of Mayo Clinic’s Department of Cardiovascular Medicine and senior author of the study, said, “This study demonstrates the presence of a biological signal in the EKG consistent with Covid-19 infection, but it included many ill patients.”
“While it is a hopeful signal, we must prospectively test this in asymptomatic people using smartphone-based electrodes to confirm that it can be practically used in the fight against the pandemic. Studies are underway now to address that question,” he added.
One of the 7 emirates of the UAE, Abu Dhabi is counted amongst the countries with the highest vaccination rates. However, the daily new covid cases continued to remain around the 2,000 figure since March 2021.
On Sunday, the UAE’s National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority said that over one-third of the cases in Abu Dhabi are due to the Delta strain, the variant that first emerged in India.
