Abstract

The rapid spread pattern of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID- 19) from human to human
makes it a unique infectious disease. In the bid to combat this disease over the months,
several data have been gathered about its spread in different locations all over the world,
for contact tracing, identifying symptomatic and asymptomatic cases, current and future
epidemiological spread prediction, evaluating effectiveness of containment measures among
others. Furthermore, while treating infected patients, healthcare workers have also
accumulated data on symptoms of patients, death cases, CT scans, PCR results,
hospitalized patients, and other situations. These data provide a good basis for use by
digital technologies to make worthwhile, quick, useful, and effective decisions now and after
the pandemic. Digital technologies are being used to support the public-health response to
COVID-19 worldwide for population surveillance, case identification, contact tracing, and
evaluation of interventions based on mobility data and communication with the public. These
rapid responses make use of billions of mobile phones, huge online datasets, connected
devices, cheap computing resources, and advances in machine learning and natural
language processing. In many countries, technologies with numerous applications have
been developed. By improving on the existing facilities or creating new inventions,
technologies allow the governments and health personnel to use intelligent approaches to
overcome this pandemic. The future of public health is progressively more digital, and it is
necessary for the alignment of international strategies for the regulation, evaluation, and use

of digital techniques to strengthen pandemic management, and future-readiness for COVID-the integration of existing public healthcare systems. Therefore, the spread of the COVID-19
pandemic has demonstrated the need for government, policymakers, and health
organizations to accelerate the evaluation and adoption of digital technologies.
19 and other infectious diseases. Digital technologies cannot operate alone and this calls for