An UID Number Based Tool to Enable Social Distancing Amid COVID -19

Abstract

Various nations developed their rules of national quarantines to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Extending the national quarantine for indefinite time may consequently affect welfare outcomes and the economic activity. In this regard, authorities are easing the restrictions in the regions that are relatively unaffected with coronavirus as happened in China. These relaxations are fearsomely complex as these policies certainly spark a fresh wave of infections. The fear is intense in India because of the densely packed population and enfeebled health care systems. A strategy that can simultaneously ease the relaxations while ensuring the containment of COVID-19 spread would help to combat this scenario. In line with this need, a tool is developed to resume economic activity while ensuring social distancing. The developed tool is based on the Unique Identification (UID) Number of citizens. The proposed tool aid in controlling the movement of citizens in a region systematically while allowing them to meet their needs. For demonstration purpose, the demographic features of Kasaragod city, Kerala is considered, and it is observed that the interactions can be minimized nearly by 97% while allowing the citizens to meet their daily needs on every alternate day. The tool can be used in many other situation where movements of citizens are to be released in palnned and systematic way.

Note:

Funding: No funding is received to carry this research work.

Declaration of Interest: Authors do not have any conflicts of interest.

Keywords: Open Source Geospatial tools, COVID-19, Community transmission, Unique Identification (UID) Number, Adhar number, Hotspots