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Saudi Arabia Faces COVID-19 with Highest Technologies

General view of deserted streets, during the 24 hours lockdown to counter the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia April 7, 2020. (Reuters)
General view of deserted streets, during the 24 hours lockdown to counter the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia April 7, 2020. (Reuters)
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Saudi Arabia Faces COVID-19 with Highest Technologies

General view of deserted streets, during the 24 hours lockdown to counter the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia April 7, 2020. (Reuters)
General view of deserted streets, during the 24 hours lockdown to counter the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia April 7, 2020. (Reuters)

Technologies greatly contribute to the rapid dissemination of health information among people.

Within this framework, the National Health Information Center in Saudi Arabia launched interactive platforms that provide important information about the COVID-19 virus.

The platforms include an interactive map in the Arabic language to monitor the numbers and cases of infections around the world, as well as providing a smart assistant to respond to inquiries in different languages.

CoronaMap.sa is a comprehensive interactive website that provides rich information about the virus, in addition to monitoring statistics around the world and offering instant updates, charts and illustrations, and latest news.

The site displays information on an interactive, easy-to-use map in both Arabic and English.

BashairBot is an artificial intelligence virtual assistant that responds to all inquiries and questions related to the virus in both Arabic and English, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

BashairBot can help in the initial diagnosis of the virus, provides data about the Kingdom and other countries, and links the user to an interactive platform to track the number of cases and statistics on the pandemic.

Interaction with the assistant in can be in both Arabic and English from the Coronamap site, by clicking on the robot icon on the side of the screen.

In parallel, the World Health Organization (WHO) is planning this month to launch an application that enables people in countries with limited resources to assess whether they are COVID-19-positive or not, while studying the possibility of adding a feature to track contacts based on Bluetooth.

Upon its launching, this application will be able to ask people about their symptoms, offer instructions on their possible infection with the virus, and provide information on how to take the test according to the user’s country.

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What to Know About Sinkholes after a US Woman May Have Disappeared into One

Rescue workers search in a sinkhole for Elizabeth Pollard, who disappeared while looking for her cat, in Marguerite, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Rescue workers search in a sinkhole for Elizabeth Pollard, who disappeared while looking for her cat, in Marguerite, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
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What to Know About Sinkholes after a US Woman May Have Disappeared into One

Rescue workers search in a sinkhole for Elizabeth Pollard, who disappeared while looking for her cat, in Marguerite, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Rescue workers search in a sinkhole for Elizabeth Pollard, who disappeared while looking for her cat, in Marguerite, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Authorities fear a grandmother in western Pennsylvania who disappeared while looking for her cat may have been swallowed by a sinkhole, The Associated Press reported.
Crews lowered a pole camera with a sensitive listening device into the hole on Tuesday but no sound was detected, while a second camera lowered down showed what could be a shoe.
Police say Elizabeth Pollard's relatives called police at about 1 a.m. to say she hadn’t been seen since Monday evening when she went to search for her cat. They found Pollard’s 5-year-old granddaughter in her parked car near the manhole-sized opening.
Here are some things to know about sinkholes:
What are sinkholes? A sinkhole is an area of ground that has no natural external surface drainage and can form when the ground below the land surface can no longer support the land above, according to the US Geological Survey.
The land usually stays intact for a period of time until the underground spaces just get too big. If there is not enough support for the land above the spaces, then a sudden, dramatic collapse of the land surface can happen.
How common are sinkholes? Sinkholes are most common in what geologists call karst terrain, which involves types of rock including limestone below the land surface that can naturally be dissolved by groundwater circulating through them. They can also happen due to old underground mines.
The most damage from sinkholes in the US tends to occur in Florida, Texas, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Pennsylvania. Florida, for example, is highly susceptible to sinkholes because it sits above limestone.
How big are sinkholes? Sinkholes can range in size from holes that are just a few feet wide to ones that cover a vast area spanning hundreds of acres. Their depth can also vary from just a few inches to more than 100 feet (more than 30 meters). Some are shaped like shallow bowls or saucers, whereas others have vertical walls. Some hold water and form ponds.
Other recent sinkhole incidents In June, a giant sinkhole in southern Illinois swallowed the center of a soccer field built on top of a limestone mine, taking down a large light pole and leaving a gaping chasm where squads of kids often play. No one was hurt.
In 2023, a sinkhole that in 2013 fatally swallowed a man sleeping in his house in suburban Tampa, Florida, reopened for a third time, but it was behind chain-link fencing and caused no harm to people or property. Officials said the sinkhole reopening was not unusual, especially in central Florida with its porous limestone base.
A large sinkhole opened up in 2020 in South Dakota near where a man was mowing his lawn. Testing revealed a large, improperly sealed mine beneath part of the housing subdivision, and a 40-foot-deep (12-meter-deep) pit mine in another corner of the neighborhood, a lawyer for some of the area homeowners said. Since the first giant collapse, more sinkholes have appeared.
A large sinkhole that swallowed oil field equipment and some vehicles in southeastern Texas in 2008 expanded in 2023 when another sinkhole developed and joined the first one.