Goa govt launches chatbot to create awareness about coronavirus

Goa Health Minister Vishwajit P Rane has launched a chatbot to create awareness about coronavirus among the citizens.

Speaking on the launch of the chatbot, called Cobot-19, on Wednesday Rane said, "We are happy to launch Cobot-19 as a one-stop source of information for our citizens on COVID-19 and its various aspects. We are the first state in the country to take up an initiative at this scale and our aim is to resolve the confusion caused by countless advisories from different sources as well as rumors."

The Chatbot has been developed in association with Portea Medical and Verloop.

"Taking inspiration from how the Singapore Government harnessed the power of WhatsApp recently, we have created this Chatbot as a unified official point of communication for all COVID-19 related information. It is revolutionary and will be an effective interface to stem the flow of misinformation and clear doubts around the disease. We thank Portea Medical and Verloop for their support," Rane added.

All the data has been gathered from trusted sources including the World Health Organization (WHO), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Johns Hopkins.

Verloop, a Customer Support and Engagement Automation Platform has developed the technical aspects of the bot. The information provided by the Chatbot has been verified and approved by a team of experts from Portea Medical.

The number of positive cases of coronavirus has climbed to 151 in India, including 25 foreign nationals. Three persons have died due to the infection so far in the country.

Globally, the virus has infected nearly 185,000 people and killed more than 7500, as per the latest data available on the World Health Organisation website.