{"id":9035,"date":"2020-04-06T08:46:40","date_gmt":"2020-04-06T05:46:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=9035"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:58","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:58","slug":"from-chatbots-to-online-markets-africans-craft-weapons-against-coronavirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2020\/04\/06\/from-chatbots-to-online-markets-africans-craft-weapons-against-coronavirus\/","title":{"rendered":"From Chatbots to Online Markets, Africans Craft Weapons Against Coronavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>With chatbots and interactive sites, techies on the well-connected continent are finding new ways to slow the infection rate<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From a WhatsApp chatbot to a self-diagnosis tool, Africans are devising mobile tech solutions to contain the spread of the coronavirus amid fears it could have disastrous effects for the continent&#8217;s most vulnerable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Africa has not been as badly hit by coronavirus as other continents so far &#8211; with roughly 6,000 people infected, according to a Reuters tally, compared to about 500,000 in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But experts fear the respiratory disease could have a catastrophic impact on a continent with shaky healthcare systems and where soap and clean water for hand washing are out of reach for many.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Governments, charities and entrepreneurs are racing to tap local knowledge to spread awareness of the virus simply and swiftly, and prevent it from reaching overcrowded, under-resourced slums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;A majority of Africa&#8217;s problems require mostly African solutions, or solutions designed with Africans in mind,&#8221; said Wale Adeosun, the chief executive officer of Nigeria-based Wellvis company, an online health information platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Which is one reason many of these new tech tools are made for mobile phones. According to the Pew Research Center, a Washington-based think-tank, smartphone use in Africa is growing at a breakneck pace. <a href=\"https:\/\/allafrica.com\/stories\/202004030129.html\">Read more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With chatbots and interactive sites, techies on the well-connected continent are finding new ways to slow the infection rate From a WhatsApp chatbot to a self-diagnosis tool, Africans are devising&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}