How Dubai is using technology to fight Covid-19

Arriving passengers being taken through the covid-19 tests at the Dubai International Airport on October 11, 2020.

Photo credit: Allan Olingo | Nation Media Group

My recent travel to Dubai exposed me to how countries can use technology to fight Covid-19, while also easing pressure on citizens and travellers alike and employing seamless contact tracing effortlessly.

Just from landing at the Dubai International Airport, the requirement is for all visitors seeking to stay within the territory to download the “DBX Covid-19'' application.

The employment of the mobile application, which is then to be used to track all incoming travellers staying in Dubai, forms the country’s utmost fight against imported Covid-19 cases.

With a mandatory test done at the airport before one is allowed to proceed to immigration, it means one's Covid-19 status will be uploaded on the ''My Health Card'' section of the app. Armed with a QR code, this also means those hotels and establishments that require proof of Covid-19 status will have an easy time scanning one’s status.

The Covid-19 results database. 

Photo credit: Allan Olingo | Nation Media Group

Contact tracing

But most important of all is the contact tracing capability of this mobile application. As a mandatory requirement, the mobile application will require usage of one’s location while they visit Dubai.

This means that should your results turn positive at any point, it makes the Dubai authorities' work easy to do mapping of the places visited, and thereafter contact tracing with any persons whom you might have encountered.

Already, technology giants Apple and Google have teamed up to make a Covid-19 contact tracing model that allows governments to monitor and trace citizens suspected to have the virus.

The Covid-19 exposure notifications feature, available for both iPhone and Android users through Bluetooth, will alert users if they have recently encountered a Covid-19 patient, and also allow ease of contact tracing, something Kenya, which is now experiencing a surge in infections, can still ride on.

How an individual's Covid-19 results are shared on the app.

Photo credit: Allan Olingo | Nation Media Group

For Kenya, contact tracing has been its weakest link even as its officials admit that it's now virtually impossible to track the spread of the virus in the communities, while also putting the contacts of those infected in isolation.

However, with technology, like in the case of Dubai and Rwanda, this could be made easier.

In the DBX Covid-19 mobile application, one would also have to fill their emergency contacts, residential address, or hotel for tourists, information that would allow for real time tracking, as the App also requires one to have the ''location'' feature activated in the phone.

For travellers, having a country’s Covid-19 information is important as it offers confidence both in the systems and measures being taken. For me, this stood out. I was able to get daily notifications on the country’s Covid-19 cases, and any newsworthy information I wanted to lay my hands on.

Contactless interactions

The wide use of QR codes also stood out as contactless engagements take root during this Covid-19 pandemic. From restaurants, taxis, hotels, and even hospitals almost everyone has embraced this new form of engagement. For Kenya, save for its restaurants which have seen most offer their menus via a code, this is still yet to gain traction as the world moves into the new order.

Within its health care, and in comparison, the Kenyan Covid-19 handling specifically for visitors is still paper heavy, save for the automation of the Covid-19 Travellers Health Survey Form, which now all travellers are required to fill online.

The form requires the travellers to input their names, travel history, passport numbers, flight number, seat number, temperature, and whether they have any Covid-19 symptoms including fever or chills. That was all. Once you submitted the form, generated QR Code would be sent to your email, upon which you would be required to flash it to health officials upon arrival.

“We are one of the seven countries in the world to have employed this QR Code health bio data collection for our travellers,” one of the port health officials told me as they scanned my data at arrivals.

There was nothing to be used to track any visitor’s movement once they left the airport, and with the fluid nature of Covid-19 imports, it showed a shortcoming in the country’s use of technology to do this.

A travel hygiene kit offered by Emirates Airlines to travellers.

Photo credit: Allan Olingo | Nation Media Group

Smart helmets

With fear and lines associated with Covid-19 testing Dubai, through its police, also boasts one of the most advanced temperature testing devices, another "world first".

The police officers don “smart helmets”, which the authorities say allow them to scan the temperatures of hundreds of people within a few minutes. Armed with thermal sensors, these masks can record the temperatures of up to 200 people in a minute, making it easier for them to enforce the Covid-19 measures seamlessly, especially in crowded spaces.

For Kenya, we are still stuck with thermal guns, with contactless thermometers now gaining traction within public spaces.

The Covid-19 testing regime in Kenya has been chaotic, and sometimes shambolic, especially in public hospitals. With those lucky enough to afford to undertake it in private hospitals, the costs can be prohibitive. For Dubai, the drive through testing regime is the norm, offering a 15-minute testing process, as I had come to experience, with the test costing Sh4,500.

This is relatively cheap compared to Kenya’s average of Sh8,500, with some institutions still charging as high as Sh11,000 for the test. 

“We can do up to 10,000 drive through tests across Dubai on a daily basis,” the health official undertaking my swab test informed me, as I asked to take a video of the process.

“Please do take the video and post it out there. We want people to see how simple this process is. We would like to encourage people to drive through for as many tests as they can, so that we can have a clear map of infections in the world,” he said.

With the drive through being done at a public hospital, one would not require to physically show up for his/her certificate, as an embossed QR code either on your passport, or an email notification, would allow you access to the results, within six to 14 hours.