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Yen Express, a virtual medical hub for providing people with their medications or prescription during the pandemic period has emerged as the winner of the #COVID19Plateau Developers Challenge. Led by Katfwang Fwangkat, the team lead, the virtual medical hub, http://www.yenexpress.net/ is fully launched and allows unfettered access to drugs and prescriptions in spite of the lockdowns and restrictions of physical movements.
Yen Express gets the top support with N200, 000 cash prize while iSabi (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.isabi.user) takes the second position with a N100, 000 initial support. iSabi is also fully launched and is an app that allows people report Covid 19 cases and also connects the people with healthcare providers. Datong Gwaman is the team lead for iSabi. VirCare (www.vir-care.com) was adjudged third best by judges who went through online pitches in the three days #COVID19Plateau event. VirCare is a virtual community for tracking and reporting COVID-19 cases and also creating awareness about the pandemic. The team lead is Sunday Ishaya.
The judges accessed 23 pitches and streamlined to 11 apps from which the three top solutions were finally selected,
Others are Yiino Surveillance, a surveillance and awareness app; FMI Corporation, a first aid fuzzy expert system; Codes Connect Hub, a diagnosis and awareness app; and a Covid19 Plateau Doctor Online that connects doctors with patients. Most of the other apps are still prototypes not fully launched.
“The Plateau State Government is quite impressed with the quality of candidates that showed up for the interview and the innovative solutions they brought. His Excellency, Governor Simon Lalong, believes that Plateau youths are ready for a tech driven future and has assured that the government will not have to go out of the state to source for technological solutions to improving governance, healthcare and general well-being of the people,” said Director General of the Plateau State ICT Development Agency (PICTDA), Daser David.
The PICTDA was saddled with the responsibility of overseeing this challenge from start to finish. An online form was created for interested persons to register for the Challenge. About 41 startups applied for the challenge and 37 of them were shortlisted and invited for the interview conducted virtually via Zoom. In all, 23 candidates showed up for the interview beginning 14th April and ended 16th April 2020 from 10am to 5pm daily.
“The top three candidates were selected based on their performance and the status of their project – all fully launched. The government will find other means of engaging and supporting the remaining two in the top 5 position,” added David.
The ‘Plateau COVID-19 Developers Challenge’ is designed to inspire developers in the provision of solutions for saving lives, communities, and businesses. The #COVID19Plateau Developers Challenge is seeking to get Nigeria’s tech community offer solutions round defeating COVID-19 on three focus areas that capture the global challenge of: Saving lives; Saving communities; and Saving businesses.
Plateau heightens curtailment strategies as Covid-19 national, global figures rise
Plateau state has reported only one case of COVID-19 even as the national and global figures continue to spike. But the state is already implementing mix of policies including deployment of CCTVs to monitor border closure and compliance with movement restrictions.
The state is supporting indigenous solutions for the provision of ventilators and also encouraging software developers to provide innovative ways of monitoring, tracking and remotely provisioning medical assistance to likely infected citizens.
There is complete lockdown, a statewide quarantine and fumigation exercise with people are ordered to stay at home and no movement of persons or goods are expected on the roads.
Nigeria confirmed cases are now 1,337 with 255 recoveries and
40 deaths. The global figure is grimmer with 3.04 million confirmed cases, 894, 000 recovered cases and over 211, 000 deaths. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned of worsening global condition with no cure in sight for the pandemic.
Worldwide, lockdowns have slowed down economies and made millions of people jobless. But governments across the world continue to implement strict movements to slow down the virus and flatten the spread curve. India has been under lockdown for almost 40 days and most of Europe are still closed to business and social interactions.
Plateau State has implemented similar measures even as government works on exit plans to restore social and business lives in the face of the pandemic.
“As a government, we understand that staying at home to keep people safe is a difficult thing to do, especially when you are feeling fit and healthy,” said Governor Simon Lalong in Jos.
