Diminishing the impact of COVID-19

In a call for proposals on diminishing the impact of COVID-19 a project New Technologies for Targeted Tracing, Testing and Treatment of COVID-19 Patients (3-T project) (Nr. VPP-COVID-2020/1-0025) was selected. This project is executed by researchers from the Institute of Numerical Modelling, University of Latvia, Pauls Stradiņš Clinical University Hospital scientific institute and Latvian Biomedical Research And Study Centre.

On may 19 in 2020, the state government confirmed a research programme for diminishing the consequences created by COVID-19 pandemic. In a call for proposals 10 projects have been selected on a wide variety of topics that can be separated in the following three categories:

  • Public health and healthcare
  • Engineering solutions
  • Public welfare and economy

The main project New Technologies for COVID-19 patient treatment, testing and therapy (3-T project) objective is the creation of innovative technologies that would disrupt the virus transmission, slow the transition from an asymptotic to a symptomatic case and would decrease the percentage of severely ill COVID-19 patients. Several benefits will be gained from this project:

  • A personal risk evaluation that will suggest the possible scenarios in cases of suspected infection
  • A digital solution for calculating the risk of infection with COVID-19 indoors.
  • A quick antigen-based diagnostic test that could be used for early isolation of infected patients.
  • Customized oxygen dosing adapter that would ensure constant pressure in patient’s airways and oxygen therapy for COVID-19 pneumonia patients.

Our researchers are mainly involved in developing the digital solution that would use the data of several sensors to calculate the infection risk with COVID-19. The project is currently in its initial phase – information on the possible risk factors and sensors is collected, the digital project architecture is being planned and a new numerical model is being developed. The main aim is to have a digital solution that would evaluate the infection risk in different indoor spaces such as offices and cafes.