The Sultanate of Oman … a smart system for controlling infectious diseases within cities

A recent study in the Sultanate of Oman has developed a smart electronic system through which various control measures can be taken in infectious diseases within Omani cities.

Al-Shabiba newspaper stated that those studies were conducted by researcher Dr. Hadi Haddad and his research team from the College of Arts and Applied Sciences at Dhofar University entitled “An intelligent electronic system for controlling infectious diseases in Omani cities, the Corona virus as an example” to a number of distinguished research outputs.
According to Haddad, the study aims to develop an intelligent electronic system to help in making decisions that can be used by the competent authorities to determine and test the effect of various control measures (such as reducing the number of workers in the workplace, closing schools, reducing social activities, vaccination, etc.).

The smart system relies on two different methods, namely: modeling and simulation. The first method simulates the spread of the pandemic in different social groups living in a specific urban area such as a governorate, state or city through community contact. The second method aimed to study the role of mass transit (private buses). In the spread of the epidemic in a specific city, such as the Dhofar Governorate, where the small group buses are used as an alternative to public transportation.

Thanks to this system, it is possible to keep the pandemic under control, reduce the number of deaths and avoid putting the medical system under pressure, as well as taking a simultaneous set of measures, including vaccinating the majority of the adult population, reducing the presence in the workplace, suspending studies for a specific period of time, and reducing social activities.

These measures help in effectively reducing the spread of the pandemic while maintaining the limitation of basic daily activities such as attending workplaces, studies and other activities, provided that persons aged 16 years and over are vaccinated.