Like almost all the countries of the world, Senegal is not spared from the coronavirus pandemic. Since the appearance of the first positive test on March 2, 2020, initiatives have sprung up everywhere to help the state contain the disease as quickly as possible. Since then, formal and informal sectors, all social and professional strata of the country have mobilized to bring their touch to what should be called "national effort".
It is in this dynamic that the polytechnics of Senegal, the fablabs and the engineers have set up systems adapted to fill the gap on sanitary supplies but also solutions to allow the populations to better respect the barrier measures.
Digital to save lives is possible! To be sure, here are 5 tech initiatives that play a major role in the fight against covid-19 in Senegal:
- The SunuCity platform
Created to facilitate communication between populations and government authorities, SunuCity is a citizen platform that enables residents of an area to be able to make alerts and receive health information in real time. The strength of this system is based on geolocation. Thus, in this pandemic period where positive cases and contacts are listed according to their areas of residence, the application is of great help for the Ministry of Health. With the platform, populations will be able to collect information from the ministry and alert in the event of abnormal or suspicious situations. At the moment, the app is available on the Play Store and should soon be launched on the App Store.
- The Africa Mobile information portal
While most digital solutions during this crisis were internet-based, Africa Mobile relied on SMS. As a result, the portal # 2121 # was set up to allow those who do not have internet access to be able to access information in real time from their mobile phone. Once on the free portal, you can consult the figures for the coronavirus in Senegal, see the health instructions and important information. The data is updated automatically and you do not need to open an account to access it.
- The Covid19Sn dashboard
Covid19Sn.org is a platform launched by Mamadou DIAGNE, developer and ambassador of the LINUX community in Senegal. The website has a dashboard that tracks the status of the Covid 19 in Senegal in real time. Through this dashboard, you can monitor the various cases declared by zone as well as filtering on their contagion mode (contact, community or imported). Remember that the website is a citizen initiative that is not attached to the Ministry of Health at the moment.
- The homemade artificial respirator
To compensate for the lack of sanitary devices able to respond to critical cases during this crisis, researchers from the EPT (École Polytechnique de Thiès) have created an artificial respirator based on low-cost components. This initiative comes at a time when artificial respirators are almost out of stock in the world. Thus, EFA researchers assure that if they receive government support, they will be able to produce dozens of devices per day at less than 40,000 FCFA per unit.
To be continued… ;-)
- The chat bot of information on Whatsapp
Like all other specific players, the government of Senegal has also launched digital services to manage the pandemic. Thus, through the ADIE (the state computer agency), a messaging robot on Whatsapp is set up for all those who want information on the coronavirus. This chat bot (robot) is an automated service that operates 24 hours a day and collects essential information from WhatsApp from the Ministry of Health.
To use the service, simply register the number +221 76 600 05 26 and send a message via Whatsapp messaging to this number. A discussion will be automatically started with the robot.
In addition, ADIE is currently working on other solutions to support the Ministry of Health in monitoring the crisis. A traffic authorization request platform is already in the development phase and should soon be launched.
In view of the situation, an application for tracking people having contact with cases declared positive is also possible.