Pakistan launches 'Corona Chatbot' to address common concerns on COVID-19

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani government has launched ‘Corona Chatbot’ where people can collect up to date information on COVID-19 pandemic in two languages including English and Urdu, announced the head of PM’s ‘Digital Pakistan’ initiative Tania Aidrus on Monday.

The bilingual chatbot is developed to assist Pakistanis for collecting related information regarding coronavirus including the data of laboratories for screening tests and even do a quick test to assess the risk of the virus by answering to a number of questions.

The announcement was made by Tania Aidrus on her Twitter, said: “Our team wanted to build an effective way to get information out to Pakistanis. We’ve launched a chatbot to address common concerns on #Coronavirus. You can find labs near you and even do a quick test to assess your risk of #Coronavirus. Please try it out! https://messenger.com/t/NHSRCOfficial”

Our team wanted to build an effective way to get information out to Pakistanis. We’ve launched a chatbot to address common concerns on #Coronavirus. You can find labs near you and even do a quick test to assess your risk of #Coronavirus. Please try it out! https://t.co/doniPg17jX pic.twitter.com/l8VbQEHb0M

— Tania Aidrus (@taidrus) March 16, 2020

The Facebook Messenger’s chatbox linked with the official page of Pakistan’s health ministry (NHSRC) needs subscription through your social account.

From this platform, people can easily collect or revise all data related to the symptoms of the deadly virus.

If people need to find the nearest labs, the bot will question your location by providing a list of major cities and later prescribe names of laboratories for screening tests of COVID-19.

Corona Chatbox has not only promised to send people ‘live updates’ regarding the prevailing situation of virus in the country but also providing important information about coronavirus, symptoms, protection tips, assessing health risk to the person communicating with the bot by answering its questions.

It is pertinent to mention here that Sindh’s COVID-19 count reached 150 after more people returning from Taftan tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Monday, pushing the total number of cases in the country above 180.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Imran Khan has also directed concerned authorities to organise public briefing on a daily basis over corona pandemic to stop the spread of false reports creating fear among nationals regarding COVID-19.

PM Khan said the Centre and provinces are dealing the situation with full coordination. He added the government is fully aware of the dangers but such decisions should be avoided that could create an environment of fear.

Read: Coronavirus: 14 laboratories listed for screening tests in Pakistan

“Maximum steps will be taken on the government level to stop coronavirus and there is a need to give awareness to the nationals over the seriousness of this matter. I appeal nationals to adopt self prevention measures which will also assist the authorities to contain the spread of the virus.

Moreover, the Special Assistant to PM on Health Dr Zafar Mirza announced said that 14 laboratories in major cities of the country have been provided with diagnostic kits by the government that will conduct free tests of people. Prime Minister Imran Khan is personally monitoring and supervising the situation, he added.