Wearable devices can potentially spot symptoms of coronavirus

Researchers across the globe currently have a big challenge to develop a vaccine or a designated treatment of the coronavirus. Apart from the vaccine researchers are also finding ways to develop a diagnosis method to detect the infection as early as possible so it helps in containing the virus. Some of the preliminary studies have revealed that data from a wearable devices could help in detecting coronavirus days before the person actually realizes that they are sick.

This comes as a big progress fitness trackers are now slowly inching towards being sickness trackers. The findings might be at a very initial stage as two academic studies have shown hopes towards the fight against COVID-19 but it can be a big leap for the wearable tech. In the past, the devices from the companies like Fitbit, Apple and Oura have helped to detect some serious health conditions. So it can be said that such findings can be promising.

The virus broke in December, 2019 in China and by March it became a pandemic and since then a number of studies has been conducted while observing if the stream of data from the wearables could give any hints about the coronavirus in the body. Many people have been a part of it so far, but they cannot be called as clinical trials. The researchers here are gathering data and focusing on the patterns.

One of the devices which are also being used for the research is the health tracking ring from Oura. The wireless device is priced at $300 and looks like jewellery and collects data like the heart rate and breathing patterns of the wearer. Another thing that it tracks is the body temperature which is an important and critical symptom of COVID-19. Even the Apple Watch is being used to send data to the researchers who then study the heart measurements from a range of trackers which are ample to detect the coronavirus or other viral infections.

Photo Credits: Wired