By CoperNick

Mohamed K. , Saeed K. 

EI Mercy

May 14, 2020

As two young citizens from the UAE, we feel obliged to share our approach and practices with our brother and sisters in Italy. In the 21st century, humanitarian science calls for a multi-stakeholder governance approach to tackle far-reaching, global challenges requiring expertise from a broad variety of disciplines. Cross-national sharing of the best practices and the leverage of technology play a key in solving such pressing problems.

The issue in Italy with the COVID-19 has always been an early warning to the world due to its high mortality rate in the world. The United Arab Emirates has taken innovative encounters with this global pandemic. Individuals and government entities, along with the deployment of effective technology, stood together against the viral disaster, which is why the UAE’s reaction to COVID-19 has been able withstand this biological threat.

The greatest misconception about the COVID-19 battle has been released that the amount of healthcare laborers should equal the population in terms of quantity to defeat the virus. The International Council of Nurses has released a report suggesting that Italy’s shortfalls in the struggle against this disaster have occurred due to the lack of capacity in the logistics, transportation and immigration sectors to aid the healthcare system.

As for the UAE, before COVID-19 became a global pandemic, innovations of protection for the UAE had been implemented in transportation and law enforcement as opposed to the healthcare system. Advanced technology and innovations have been instrumental in containing the further spread of the virus.

One of the reasons why the UAE demonstrated “extraordinary measures” to COVID-19 is its extreme effectiveness and speed in handling the situation. For example, one of the measures that have been adopted later in the month of March such as widespread online shopping—as opposed physical—business contacts were already working in the UAE before March. Ultimately, it is such a protective measure that has insured the UAE’S 9.5 million people against the pandemic, even with Dubai being the world’s third busiest airport. As the exponential graph of the situation has grown, UAE has used law enforcement creatively; the police forces are using radar and artificial intelligence to ensure that only the people with permits are allowed for movement. Drones have been employed to oversee and disinfect public areas.

Similarly, in regard with diagnosis, which is critical approach to win this battle, individual drive-through test centers that can test for COVID-19 in less than 10 minutes have been established as the latest development to step up for the screening process. As of April 13th, there were 13 stations spread around the UAE. 
 

Notably, these centers identified and prioritized vulnerable groups, including pregnant women, people with chronic conditions, and citizens aged 65 and above. This approach will accelerate the screening process as well as target the vulnerable segments of the population, who could get seriously ill in a relatively short amount of time, thus straining even more the health care system.

Fortunately, though, the health structure capacity of Italy is not far behind us in the UAE, which means that, at the very least, Italy can implement the mentioned strategies. It is worth writing that the best approach for Italy is to optimize defensive approach from the healthcare system all the way to law enforcement and supporting non-governmental agencies, including Al companies and tech companies. Coordinated private-public collaboration would result in a better way of handling such an emergency. Screening people, increasing the restriction of movement, and implementing screening among all public areas through moves such as radar tracking for movement are key to contain the spread of the virus and minimize the pressure on the healthcare sector. Italy and the world could learn from the methods that have been tested and proven to work excellently in the UAE. Therefore, joining this global conversation, swapping ideas, orchestrating different stakeholders, and deploying effective technologies are crucial steps to protect the whole humanity. We are all in this together.

References:

–        Lessons that the US can learn from the UAE about the decontamination of COVID-19 by the Atlantic Council

–        The UAE’s extremely resilience to COVID-19 by TheSeanPost

–        Digital technologies critical in facing COVID-19 pandemic by the UN

–        Technology become a key utility for AUE faced with COVID-19 by the National

–        Leveraging AI to battle this pandemic by Harvard Business Review

–        Big Data could undermine COVID-19 response by Harvard Business Review

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