The novel Coronavirus or COVID-19 has taken over the world in the true sense of the word. Adversely affecting people, businesses and economies in nearly every country of the globe, this disease is highly infectious, has a high mortality rate and has been declared a pandemic by the WHO.

Although governments around the world are trying their best to curb this outbreak, the effects that their efforts will bring in are yet to be seen. With over 400,000 infected and 18,000 dead, this virus is showing no signs of slowing down as its main carriers – us humans travel around the world to reach our homes or destinations.

Note: Volumetree urges you to follow the directions of your government and cross-verify any information in this blog by checking the website of your country’s health department. Although a lot of care has been taken in compiling this document and verifying information sources, we will not be held responsible for any information that is out-of-date or inaccurate.

People around the world are terrified, and for good reason. Most countries including China underestimated the highly infectious nature of this virus and imagined it to be as infectious as the common cold, with low mortality rates. However, as the cases went from dozens to hundreds to literally hundreds of thousands and economies came to a virtual standstill, governments around the world started locking down travel and movement of people in order to contain this dangerous disease. Most of the infections occurred because people traveled while they were infected, in turn affecting dozens of others.

The initial lack of information about the disease and what to do to prevent it caused thousands of fatalities, making it a pandemic that can only be rivaled by the Spanish Flu of 1918. As awareness spread, so did misinformation and unverified claims. With governments clamping down on unverified information sources and using their own websites, social media and other digital platforms to provide clear and accurate information about the disease, people are better informed about how to combat this pandemic.

Technology has come to the rescue of mankind yet again, by providing factual information about the disease from reliable sources so that people can check their symptoms and be safe. Multinationals like Microsoft have teamed up with the CDC to create AI-driven symptom checkers so that people can check their symptoms at home and reduce mass hysteria along with shortening queues at local hospitals.

Governments around the world have issued advisories to ensure that their citizens stay safe and do not throng hospitals. They have even leveraged the power of modern technology to ensure that people can check their symptoms at home and get a general idea about their current condition. Some of these advisories include:

WHO or the World Health Organization

The website of the World Health Organization has the intelligence gathered from eminent medical professionals around the world and provides up-to-date information about the disease, its symptoms, travel advice, mythbusters, and preventive measures.

Risk Communication To increase access to reliable information, WHO has partnered with WhatsApp and Facebook to launch a WHO Health Alert messaging service. This service will provide the latest news and information on COVID-19, including details on symptoms and how people can protect themselves.

John Hopkins CSSE dashboard

This powerful, AI-driven dashboard has highly accurate information about the spread of the Coronavirus from around the world.

ECDC or the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control

The primary body responsible for gathering data and providing disease-related advisories around the world has made a page that contains all the information people in Europe may require about the disease. Detailed information is also available on local government websites of various countries in Europe.

Sweden – official website

The website of the Swedish Government details all official advisories regarding the coronavirus pandemic.

Gov.UK – the official website of the government of the UK

For those in the UK, Ireland, Scotland or Wales, the latest information and advisories about the Coronavirus will be available on this website. The NHS subsection on this page also has a link to an AI-driven symptom checker that you can use to check if you might have been infected.

Coronavirus.gov – The official website of the United States Government coronavirus taskforce

This website, along with the website of the Centre for Disease Control provides the latest information about the coronavirus and an AI-Driven symptom checker that can help you check if you maybe infected by the Coronavirus.

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare – Government of India

This website provides complete details about the Coronavirus pandemic in India and any official advisories from the government including helplines.

An AI-driven tool has been created by Apollo Hospitals in India that can help you check your symptoms.

The Government of India has also launched a new application called the Corona Kavach, which will help individuals identify if they are close to people that have been quarantined. The Corona Kavach will have color-coding to indicate the status of users. The app will display different colors to indicate if a person has never come in contact with a positive case, has been close to a positive case or has been declared positive. Data of infected and quarantined people have been fed into the app database by the government.

GOV.za – the official website of the South African Government

This website gives complete details about the Coronavirus pandemic in South Africa and any official advisories from the government.

Dubai’s official government website – Coronavirus advisory

This website provides multi-lingual information about the spread of the coronavirus in Dubai and the region.

Health.gov.au – the official website of the Australian Government – Department of Health

This website provides all the details about the Coronavirus and its spread in Australia, and any related advisories. They also have an AI-driven tool that can help you check your symptoms online.

AS/COA – the website of the Americas society

This website provides details about the Coronavirus in Latin America and region-specific advisories about the same.

Ministry of Health, Singapore

This website gives details about the coronavirus pandemic in Singapore and any regional advisories.

Gov.HK – the official website of Hong Kong SAR

This website gives all the information available about the spread of the Coronavirus in Hong Kong.

China CDC – The website of the Centre for Disease Control in China

This Chinese-only website gives all the details about the Coronavirus epidemic in China and any related advisories about the same.

The website of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan

This website provides details about the Coronavirus in Japan and any official government advisories about this pandemic.

We at Volumetree sincerely hope that the world will soon see an end to this pandemic, and life will continue as usual. We offer condolences to those who could not make it and offer our best wishes and a speedy recovery to those battling this dreadful disease.