COVID-19 Sāvdhān: Harnessing the Telecom Infrastructure for COVID-19 Management

Abstract

The tremendous challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to light the significance of inclusive and effective risk communication as a top priority for preparedness and response in health emergencies. A comprehensive emergency management strategy must include effective communication systems assisted with state-of-the-art Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). For enabling communication, SMS messages utilizing the vast telecommunication sector have proven to be a very efficient tool. Messages should be precise, scientifically accurate, context-sensitive, entrusted, understandable, as well as relevant for the segment of society they are intended for. Geo-targeting helps in reducing over-alerting by minimizing the annoyance and the subsequent opt-out behavior caused by unnecessary alerts. This study provides an in-depth description of the established platform known as ‘COVID-19 Sāvdhān’, which allows for the SMS dissemination of pandemic-related messages to the geo-targeted population, including but not limited to information about vaccination, quarantine facilities, testing centers, hotspots, lockdown, essential supplies, and law and order situations. The platform has been widely used to disseminate more than 3.4 billion targeted SMS in 10 different languages across the length and breadth of India during COVID situation.