Students, IIT pros create online platform for info on Covid support system

Our Reporter
Dimapur, May 23 (EMN): As the second wave of Covid-19 is taking a toll on the healthcare system and manpower with the surge in positive cases in Nagaland, a group of young researchers and alumni of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) have created a platform for people looking for verified information on Covid-related support system in the state.

The like-minded group formed through WhatsApp voluntarily created a platform on Linktree, a social media landing page, and it started operating and circulating on social media on May 22. The group conceived the idea for the Nagaland Covid resources through Linktree after coming across people looking for help related to Covid through social media.

‘The Covid-related support system on Linktree was mainly to disseminate information by providing verified Covid leads of every district and provide help to people seeking information related to Covid’, a member of the group told Eastern Mirror.

The team shared that it was challenging for them to create verified leads.

“Sources are scattered so we have to keep an eye out for news articles/official updates; verification is not easy since we’re a small team. We’re all researchers, students and working full time jobs as well so it is challenging to allocate time to it”, the team said.

The linktree for Nagaland (https://linktr.ee/forNagaland) page takes the visitor to 12 district links and provides information on government support, hospital support, testing centre, Covid Care Centre and cemetery support. The team said they are working on updating the availability of oxygen and ICU beds across the state through verified sources.

It has also provided numbers for people to contact and provide information to be updated to the link. If citizens want to help verify information, they can contact team members Lungyina Meru (lumerufri@gmail.com) at 7302899860 and Thuli Chishi (thuli9chishi@gmail.com) at 9372764620, it was informed. 

“The only thing we wanted was to help at least one or two persons. We all believe in the value of one life, so that’s our main concern, to have helped at least one person at the end of the pandemic will be enough for us. So without knowing how to help, we decided to start with information. But we are also willing to help in any other areas that are necessary, if and when the need arises, so we are on standby if people require other means of assistance,” the team shared.