On 31 December 2019, the local authorities of Wuhan, Hubei province, China, reported a cluster of pneumonia cases of unknown origin. On 9 January 2020, the China Centre for Disease Control reported a novel coronavirus - now referred as SARS-CoV-2 to be the causative agent. As of 24 February 2020, 79 360 cases of novel coronavirus infection COVID-19 (in accordance with the applied case definitions in the affected countries) have been reported, including 2 618 deaths. The disease has already spread to 31 countries outside China, with new cases continuing to emerge daily [1].The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 pandemic a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. As of December 2022, over 649 million confirmed cases and over 6.6 million deaths have been reported globally. During the WHO Committee in January 2020, a univocal belief was expressed that it is still possible to interrupt virus spread, provided that countries put in place strong measures to detect disease early, isolate and treat cases, trace contacts, and promote social distancing measures commensurate with the risk. In light of this, the European Commission called for projects that would help contain the spread of the volatile pandemic and ultimately minimize the burden on public health.
At the time when the call was published in March 2020, there were no specific vaccines or treatments proven effective against this viral disease. Therefore, early and accurate detection of COVID-19 has been critical to containing its spread, improving health outcomes and limits the negative impacts on society.
The COVID-RED consortium was brought together as a result of this call in order to address issues of high public health need that emerged from the pandemic. The COVID-RED project has been working towards developing a reliable tool for easy, at-home use to detect potential COVID-19 infections in symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals. The project employed wearable digital technology (smart armbands) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms to assess user health status in real-time following known or unknown exposure to the virus. Information is exchanged with the user via a mobile health application. The tool was designed to provide a daily health status check and make recommendations regarding referrals to medical care facilities for confirmatory diagnoses of COVID 19 infections if required.
The overall goal of the COVID-RED public and private partner consortium had been to conduct a study that evaluated the use and performance of a repurposed CE-marked wearable device, which measures breathing rate, pulse rate, skin temperature, and heart rate variability, to detect and monitor changes in the measured bio parameters that are indicative of a potential COVID-19 infection. Participants also reported clinical symptoms via the device’s mobile application. The project has aimed to improve early detection of COVID-19 cases, and thus limit the spread of the disease, optimize triage for medical care, and improve patient prognosis.
