Staff members check passengers' temperature at the exit of Beijing West Railway Station in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 28, 2020. Beijing West Railway Station has stepped up measures, such as disinfecting trains and stations and measuring body temperatures of travelers, to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. (Xinhua/Ren Chao)

Emerging technologies such as big data are seen as having played a notable part in preventing and containing the spread of the novel coronavirus which has raged across China.

A much talked about example of the use of big data in the nationwide battle against the virus is an analysis of domestic migration trends to produce graphics showcasing the top destinations people living in a particular city are heading for. The migration trend mapping functionality was unveiled by Baidu Maps on Saturday, allowing users to check out the migration trends of Chinese mainland cities via handsets or computers from the onset of this year's Spring Festival travel rush, according to information the Global Times obtained Thursday from Baidu. An index measuring the scale of migration for mainland cities by Baidu Maps was also up and running on Sunday, making publicly available the flows of people from places that are severely infected with the new strain of coronavirus, notably Wuhan in Central China's Hubei Province where the virus was initially diagnosed.

In addition, Baidu Maps offers real-time notifications about travel tips and road closures as well as  enabling users in 200-plus cities to search for nearby fever clinics.

Similarly, mapping firm AutoNavi also enables nearby fever clinics to be readily checkable and provides wide-ranging information about the virus. A special emphasis on the virus is also easily found on the homepage of Alipay, Alibaba's ubiquitous mobile payment solution, presenting users with real-time data regarding the virus, gateways to food delivery services and shopping, among other mobile services helping people through the difficult time.

In other instances of a technology angle on the coronavirus fight, Baidu announced lately that its smart outbound call platform has been freely opened to governments at all levels, health commission authorities, residential communities and disease control and prevention centers starting Monday until the end of the outbreak. The call platform features the filtering of flows of migrant people and local residents and issuing notifications to specified groups of people, and is believed to be much more efficient than phone calls made by people. 

Global Times