Singapore AI startup launches Covid-19 tracker in the Philippines

Singapore-based AI solutions startup Sqreem Technologies has launched a new tool to track Covid-19 data, including available hospital beds and ventilators by zip code, in real time.

Photo credit: Sqreem

Named Data Natin, which means “our data” in Tagalog, the tracker is now in use in the Philippines, which currently has one of the highest Covid-19 caseloads in Southeast Asia. It uses publicly available data to track and showcase information, allowing users to make informed decisions that could improve a patient’s chances of recovery.

Ian Chapman-Banks, CEO and co-founder of Sqreem, said the tool could also aid government policymakers and community planners by enabling them to monitor trends of infections better. “And so, you could do logistics planning because you know a surge is coming,” he added.

The CEO also said that while the Philippines was already making Covid-19 data more available to the public, the way the country was going about it was unstructured. Sqreem said it had redesigned, recoded, and further developed its technology to augment government contact-tracing efforts worldwide last year and is investing US$500,000 to create the tracker.

Founded in 2006, Sqreem collects, analyzes, and creates a database of open data on the internet using its proprietary AI technology. It provides data analysis and programmatic targeting services to more than 100 companies and government agencies, it said in a statement.