21 December 2020 - Wits University
Gauteng Government, IBM Research and Wits University are fighting the pandemic with artificial intelligence.
Accurate modelling is one of the tools being used to fight the Covid-19 pandemic globally. It is essential for policy makers, experts and the population to get access to reliable information on the evolution and severity of the pandemic based on relevant and robust advanced analytics and modelling.
In the last two weeks there has been a large increase in the daily number of cases throughout South Africa. These increases show clear signs of being the beginning of the second surge experienced in many countries around the world. In order to manage the rapidly growing numbers in Gauteng, it is vital to be able to target areas where the spread of the virus is growing fast and can be categorised as a hotspot. The determination and modelling of hotspots are complex tasks that require the use of techniques derived from artificial intelligence (AI).