An Indian IT firm, Thalamus Irwine, has announced that they have developed an Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) solution that can possibly help assist the central and state governments to test and identify vulnerable communities who should be prioritised for the COVID-19 vaccination so that the governments can put brakes on the continued spread of the pandemic. The serosurvey platform is named Garuda.

While studying thousands of samples in a sero-study can take up to months, Garuda can conduct a seroprevalence study of one crore samples within a week's time, according to the firm. Rishabh Sharma, CEO of the firm told IANS that he is also in talks with several state governments to implement his technology in their respective states. "While I'm not at liberty to disclose the names currently, what I can tell you is that a few states from North India and one from South India are considering the project," he shared.

According to Sharma, the technology could help the government identify vulnerable groups that can be prioritised of vaccines in later stages of immunisation to break the chain of infection. In his statement to IANS, Sharma said his serosurvey platform can map out areas and communities that have not developed or have the least immunity against COVID-19.

"Based on the analysis, can identify vulnerable populations, predict the future trends as well as monitor movement of the virus," he explained. "If Coronavirus is a fire, then these communities are its oxygen pockets. The virus requires new hosts to sustain its transmission. We have so many small such clusters who have remained untouched by the virus but are susceptible to the infection. There is no real-time information available on them," Sharma said

"To douse the fire, such communities also need to be vaccinated on priority. It would help build immunity along with the people who received it naturally and the chain would be broken much faster. It will flatten the curve eventually, which is the purpose of the vaccine," he added.

The firm has partnered with ITI in a project under the Department of Telecommunication. R.M. Agarwal, chairman and managing Director, ITI, while announcing their partnership with Garuda last week, said, "Our efforts with Garuda are in line with the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM). Garuda has also been integrated with Aadhaar already via our Aadhaar services and we are continuing to find new use cases," he had stated. While Sharma stated that there is no argument to the fact that healthcare and frontline workers need to receive the jabs on utmost priority, he also added "...I would suggest that an informed strategy would prove much effective in controlling the infection. For that, data can be extrapolated over a large population and understand the movement of the virus across the country," Sharma clarified.

Industry experts have welcomed the solution by Garuda but are wary about the project feasibility, given the vastness of the Indian population. Prabhakaran Dorairaj, Professor of Epidemiology, Public Health Foundation of India, said, "The upcoming vaccines are expected to be pegged below Rs 1,000 per vial. If the test costs higher than the vaccine itself, then it is of no use," he told IANS.

Sharma said that the cost of the test currently is estimated at around Rs 1,000 per sample. Currently, Garuda platform tests samples using testing machines produced by Boditech Med Inc, a biotechnology company based out of South Korea, which is approved by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) and validated by ICMR. However, the test prices can come down if the test devices are manufactured in India.

However, if manufactured in the country, the price could be lowered.