Meet Covidu, the Chatbot to Stay Updated on COVID-19 Cases around the World
In times like these, access to transparent, trustworthy information is critical due to the following factors:
There is an information overload. This can lead to confusion and interfere with the decision-making process
The internet is working at near-max capacity. Many are seeing reduced download and upload speeds, which limits the quality of information they can access
There is a need for reliable updates. Given the characteristics of the Coronavirus and the impact it is having on our communities, reliable updates are critical
It is for these reasons that Eilif Johansen developed Covidu, a Facebook Messenger Chatbot that provides the latest COVID-19 stats for the country, city or state you specify.
To access Covidu, you just need to open the bot in Messenger and write the name of the country, city or state you wish to get stats for. The benefits of having the Covidu chatbot on your Facebook Messenger app are clear:
It’s free
Consumes very little data
Retrieves updated information in just a couple of seconds
Allows for endless searches
Relies on an authoritative source (the John Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering)
The role of tech in the Coronavirus pandemic
Many technology companies and professionals are going the extra mile to help contain and endure the ongoing pandemic and its consequences.
Mr. Johansen is one of these people.
He dedicated his time and resources to create and launch a useful product for free. In addition, he did so after losing his most important client (one of Norway’s largest travel agencies) due to the Coronavirus outbreak.
It is also worth noticing that the Covidu chatbot runs on Make and ManyChat, and that it needs thousands of operations to function.
At the moment, Covidu is consuming 60,000+ Make operations a day; the number is set to keep growing as more people begins to use the chatbot to stay updated on the COVID-19 incidence.
With this in mind, Make has decided to support Mr. Johansen with free operations in order to keep the chatbot running.
It is a small recognition of his efforts, and we stand by him in the quest toward making information simple, reliable and available during the outbreak.
To conclude, a few notes:
If you wish to contact Mr. Johansen, please visit his company website, or find him on LinkedIn
In the case you are interested in exploring and using Make, you can sign up and start tinkering. We have many available plans, including a free tier that grants access to every feature the product has to offer.
That’s all for now. Stay strong, stay safe, and stay home!
