Things aren’t great across the world right now. COVID-19 is officially declared a pandemic. Everyday, we wake up to more and more bad news. But, all isn’t lost. We get to know that researchers are understanding more about the virus and are trying to find a vaccine for the same. People are recovering too. It falls on us to take preventive measures so that we #flattenthecurve. So that our people, our healthcare system, economy and our social and psychological wellbeing is preserved. In today’s post we will be discussing something that helps us flatten this curve.
The ‘curve’ refers to the projected number of people who will contract COVID-19 over a period of time. (It is a theoretical number used to model the spread of the virus.) Since we do not have a vaccine or cure for COVID-19 at the moment, the best solution is to flatten this curve. Flatter the curve, lesser the stress on our healthcare system and higher chance of surviving this pandemic. The curve looks like this:
As a technology company, we decided to do our bit in helping flatten the curve. One of the preventive measures provided by the World Health Organization is to wash our hands frequently with water and soap or use an alcohol based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol. We developed a mobile application that will remind us to do the same every hour.
SafeHands
A simple application from SectorQube that will remind you to wash hands/ use sanitizer every hour. The application also has information and video of how to do the same according to the World Health Organization’s guidelines. The application is pretty self explanatory. However, for your benefit, we have listed down the features:
Features
- The app has a reminder to wash hands every hour.
- On clicking the notification, you can choose either soap or sanitizer based on what you are going to use. Accordingly, an instruction video will play that shows how to wash hands and a timer will appear which will let you know how much time you need to wash your hands.
- If you aren’t using the reminder, you can still record washing your hands on the card on the homepage by swiping it.
- The card also shows the number of times you’ve washed it on that particular day and resets on the next day.
- The time left till next hand wash will be displayed below.
- Once you are done, you can choose to share it on social media if you want. It is always good to remind your loved ones and friends to wash hands once in a while.
- Below the card, you will find guidelines on how to wash your hands by the WHO. (Text and video)
- The application has two themes – Light and Dark.
- Available in iOS and Android.
Quite simple, isn’t it. But, there is one more thing you need to keep in mind. We are quite dependent on our smartphones. And they can get quite dirty pretty quickly. So, keep them clean. Always.
| Fun fact: You can sing the happy birthday song twice while washing your hands. Switch to another song if you get bored with it. |
Flattening the curve is possible through collective action. Washing hands is not the only solution we have. Below are some of the other measures as per the World Health Organization:
- Reduce touching your eyes, nose and mouth
- Cover your mouth and nose while coughing or sneezing. Maintain respiratory hygiene.
- Practise Social Distancing and maintain a distance of 3 ft from people. Avoid hugs and handshakes for now.
We are in this together. Stay updated. Verify the information you receive. Share accurate information. Do not panic. Receive medical attention if you have a fever, dry cough and respiratory symptoms. Stay safe and be kind. Let’s flatten the curve!
