AI, Big Data accelerate Bahrain’s COVID fight

TDT | Manama

Enlisting Artificial Intelligence and Big Data in COVID-19 fight has helped Bahrain ‘save precious time’ and combat the pandemic in a better way, said a top iGA official. The advanced technologies helped Kingdom easing the burden on medical staff and allowed them to focus on active cases that require treatment and thorough observation.

Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA) Chief Executive, Mohammed Ali Al Qaed, said this during a webinar on the ‘Future Vision of Digital Government Through the Lens of COVID-19’ organised by Saudi Arabia’s eGovernment Programme ‘YESSER’ and the World Bank.

Bahrain’s BeAware app, Al Qaed said, played a vital role in monitoring COVID-19 cases using Artificial Intelligence and Big Data. 758,000 downloads The app recorded more than 758,000 downloads and 401,000 registrations by citizens and residents, he revealed.

“BeAware” enabled drivethrough test bookings for individuals completing home self-isolation periods, online access to test results, latest local and global COVID-19 updates as well as measures and guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health.

Digital government experts from KSA, UAE, UK, Finland, and Australia, as well as speakers from the World Bank Group, World Bank, and the United Nations, were present during the webinar held on the role of modern technology in combatting the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).

Cloud-first policy Bahrain’s Cloud-first policy, the chief executive said, assisted the nation greatly in combating the COVID-19 pandemic, as around 61 per cent of the services offered here were already in the cloud computing system. “This helped the Kingdom in reducing costs, improving efficiency, and offering unlimited capacity.”

Remote working in 45 govt entities Al Qaed said the Kingdom also implemented the remote working protocol in nearly 45 government entities to offer most of their services online. The process allowed 6,500 employees secure access to the Government Data Network (GDN) via remote SSL VPN.

“This was in addition to offering technical support with the use of the Microsoft Teams platform, which allowed many employees to telecommute.” Video conferring technologies, including that of Zoom, and Cisco application, were made use in high-level ministerial meetings, the iGA CE told the conference.

Al Qaed also provided an overview of Bahrain’s remote learning experience and the progress made in transferring the Ministry of Education’s portal (EDUNET) to the cloud. 60pc govt services digitised iGA, he said, has digitised 60 pc of government services via the National Portal, bahrain. bh before the global pandemic.

some of the processes were substituted with its digital alternative at a later time, with Comprehensive ID and population registration service being one amongst them. “The goal now is to create a centralised infrastructure for government services, with a focus on cybersecurity- one of the pillars of its IT system,” he told the conference.