SN Computer Science (2021) 2:42

https://doi.org/10.1007/s42979-020-00400-y

ORIGINAL RESEARCH

An Enhanced IoT Based Tracing and Tracking Model for COVID ‑19
Cases
Sakthi Jaya Sundar Rajasekar1

Received: 9 November 2020 / Accepted: 17 November 2020 / Published online: 18 January 2021
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd 2021

Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has alarmed the world nations to impose strict curfews and emergencies to prevent the social trans-
mission of the disease. In order to achieve this, effective Tracing and Tracking of the suspected COVID-19 cases need to be
achieved. In view of the enormous number of cases being recorded each day, this process couldn’t be performed effectively
with simple manual tracing. Hence, we have proposed an Internet of Things (IoT) based automated Tracing and Tracking
method for identification of the possible contacts with deployment of cost-effective RFID Tags and the mobile of the indi-
viduals which act as a reader. Thereby, tracing of persons who have crossed the subject would be possible even without the
knowledge of the suspected cases. This would enable cent percent quarantine of possible primary and secondary contacts and
monitoring of the same by the administrative agencies. This would augment the nations’ capability of managing the pandemic.

Keywords COVID-19 · Internet of Things (IoT) · Near Field Communication (NFC) · Radio Frequency Identification
(RFID) tag

Introduction several countries have been crumbling under the pressure

of the health care emergency and economic recession as
A highly contagious pneumonia outbreak took place in the majority of the affected nations have enforced a partial or
month of December 2019 in the Chinese city of Wuhan. complete lockdown. The countries are no longer able to bear
This outbreak was caused by the Novel Coronavirus named the impact of the pandemic on the economy and hence, are
SARS-CoV-2. This disease is designated as COrona Virus reopening. This is a phase where countries should exercise
Disease-19, abbreviated as COVID-19. This disease was utmost caution where aggressive testing could be the only
announced as a pandemic by the World Health Organiza- way forward. We need to test, isolate and treat patients. The
tion (WHO). The disease has travelled to several countries main issue nations face right now is tracing people who have
and has infected nearly 50 million people around the globe, had contact with COVID-19 suspected or positive cases.
leaving more than 1.2 million dead [1]. Although various When the cases were very less, manual tracing has proved
drugs are in various stages of trial all around the globe, successful. However, with each day recording very high
none of them has yet been declared as the standard drug numbers, we need to look at a more automated, efficient
in the treatment protocol. Vaccines for COVID-19 are yet and a cost-effective tracing protocol which should be easily
to be developed and with lack of sufficient diagnostic kits, usable and acceptable by the masses. The proposed work
aims to resolve this issue using the Internet of Things (IoT)
Technology with an efficient and cost-effective model. This
This article is part of the topical collection “Advances in
Computational Approaches for Artificial Intelligence, Image in turn helps to prevent the social transmission of the disease
Processing, IoT and Cloud Applications” guest edited by Bhanu by breaking the chain of transmission. This could eradicate
Prakash K N and M. Shivakumar. the disease at the earliest possible.
The Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Tag is one of
* Sakthi Jaya Sundar Rajasekar
[email protected] the sensor devices in the edge layer of the Internet of Things
(IoT) technology, which is used to uniquely identify a thing
1
Melmaruvathur Adhiparasakthi Institute of Medical Sciences (or person) in the world and make an entry in a registry. This
and Research, Melmaruvathur, Chengalpattu District,
Tamil Nadu 603319, India

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technology is being used in various fields from agriculture price and efficacy of the various contact tracing technologies
to industries. of COVID-19 are briefed [18]. A stochastic transmission
model is used to study the efficacy of the local responses
undertaken to battle the pandemic. It is used to analyze the
Related Works usefulness of contact tracing and isolating suspected cases
in management of the pandemic [19].
These RFID tags have a wide range of applications in vari-
ous fields which include asset tracking within hospitals.
Simulation of managing the emergency department with Materials and Methods
RFID tag is discussed [2]. Survey about the usage of RFID
tag for managing the safety of the patients is presented [3]. This paper aims at developing an IoT based Tracing and
Survey on Physical Activity monitoring using wearable is Tracking model for COVID-19 Cases using Radio Fre-
briefed [4]. Near Field Communication (NFC) based health quency Identification Technology. The architecture of the
care management system for managing the patients’ details proposed model is shown in Fig. 1. The proposed model
in the hospital server for further processing and helping the works with a High Frequency Passive RFID Tags. The High
concerned doctors to make better informed decisions is dis- Frequency RFID Tags have a range of 1 meter and oper-
cussed [5, 6]. Development of Healthcare monitoring system ates over a frequency of 13.56 Mega Hertz (MHz). These
using machine learning algorithms, in a remote setting is tags are classified as active and passive depending on the
discussed [7]. The various prospects and barriers of using availability of power source. The active RFID possess its
the RFID Technology is discussed. Usage of RFID Tech- own power source. The passive RFID Tags doesn’t have
nology in Medical equipment tracking, medical personnel a power source. The tag gets energized from the Electro-
tracking, tracking of drug consignments within the hospital magnetic Induction from the reader [20]. In our model, the
is discussed [8]. An overview of prospects of IoT in Medical Near Field Communication (NFC) protocol present in the
environment and the challenges in its global acceptance is mobiles enable mobile phones to act as a reader. The High
discussed [9]. Application of IoT Technology in Electronic Frequency passive RFID Tags are provided to the citizens by
Health Monitoring proves to be a game changer. Effective local administrative agency, which consists of various details
diagnosis, regular monitoring, storing vital medical data like their name, age, sex, communication details, photo-
using IoT is discussed [10]. Temperature and heartbeat sen- graph, history of smoking, COVID-19 related details like
sors are being integrated through IoT to effectively monitor fever, cold, cough, history of travelling, comorbid factors
old aged peoples’ health to inform their loved ones about (if present) such as diabetes, hypertension, Chronic Kidney
any abnormality and adverse events like heart attacks are Disease(CKD), cancer, previous surgeries, any organ trans-
discussed in [11]. IoT Technology is proving to be fruitful plants and history of intake of immunosuppressive drugs as
in providing healthcare services even in extremely remote represented in Fig. 2.
areas. Vitals like Temperature and Pulse rate are being used A mobile app is developed and installed in the mobile
to monitor the health status of an individual [12]. IoT, when phone which keeps running in the background. If and when
augmented with Machine Learning Techniques have been a person, who is tagged with a High Frequency RFID Tag
able to detect coronary illnesses much earlier. This could crosses a mobile phone it gets recorded and the collected
be employed in a mass screening for presence of coronary details from the mobile app are passed to the edge device
illnesses in remote areas [13]. Aggregation of various bodily for further processing. The tracking expert system would be
parameters using Raspberry Pi to predict chronic disorders is running in edge system. This record is more fool-proof than
discussed [14]. Various body vital signs are recorded in real human tracing as this even records people who goes beyond
time and used to analyze the health status of an individual, the person’s visibility (line of sight) and remembrance. The
thereby eliminating the need for frequent hospital visits. details collected through the NFC (which acts as RFID
Architectural review of the smart IoT-powered Healthcare reader) present in a mobile of the suspected case is passed
system is discussed [15]. During this COVID-19 pandemic, on to the edge system for further processing that should be
models like these would be really beneficial. Various con- reviewed by the local administrative agency who distribute
tact tracing apps and their nationwide implementation is the RFID tags. Later if anyone is identified as a suspected
discussed. The application’s attributes and user’s concerns case on development of symptoms, the persons whom he/
regarding security and privacy are briefed [16]. Usage of she has crossed would be identified from the edge device.
Wearables in contact tracing and an overview of the exist- Subsequently, they are alerted through their mobile app pre-
ing solutions are discussed [17]. Performance evaluation of sent in their mobiles, thereby alarming them of a possible
various techniques like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS in contact infection and to make their quarantine stricter and approach
tracing is discussed. A novel model used to evaluate the the nearest health care facility even on development of mild

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Fig. 1  Architecture of the proposed model

be processed by the edge devices. The backup of the pro-

cessed details would be maintained in cloud to provide high
reliability. Cloud computing technology is used to provide
highly reliable, high end storage and processing capabili-
ties to the end users. The required details from the tracking
expert system are forwarded to the administrative authori-
ties, nearby health care workers, the suspected cases and
others those who have crossed the suspected ones to enable
further actions.

Fig. 2  Data stored in RFID Tags

Results and Discussion
symptoms. However if the suspected subject is found to be
COVID-19 positive , the details of persons whom they have The main contributions of the proposed work is to efficiently
crossed, will be notified to the Government administrative and cost effectively trace and track the persons who have
officials and they will be placed under strict quarantine. been in proximity to the suspected cases to further take the
Also the risk of these persons acquiring the infection will be necessary measures such as undergoing quarantine and treat-
assessed based upon the scoring pattern, which is based on ments. A comparison between manual contact tracing and
the parameters like age, sex, comorbid factors and other fac- IoT-enabled Contact Tracing are given in Table 1. The pro-
tors. All these will be used to determine the intensiveness of posed model effectively transmits the details to the admin-
the isolation and effectively make a clinical decision. Also, istrative authorities to take further actions in preventing the
these epidemiological data will be used to chart out a con- social transmission of the disease even in case of ignorance
tainment plan to prevent community spread of the disease. of the suspected ones. This could help the nation to flatten
In order to effectively battle the emergent pandemic the curve at the earliest and get rid of the invisible enemy,
conditions, processing of the collected details from the the novel coronavirus.
suspected cases through their RFID tags and mobiles will

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Table 1  Comparison of manual Parameters Manual contact tracing IoT-enabled contact tracing
contact tracing and IoT-enabled
contact tracing Efficacy Low High
Cost High Low
Health Care Workers (HCWs) More HCWs are needed Less HCWs are needed
Chances of miss-outs Significant Nil
Real time surveillance Not Possible Possible
Challenges Impossible to trace contacts of Non availability of Smartphones
enormous COVID-19 patients

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12. Verma P, Mishra R. IoT based smart remote health monitoring
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hence, ethical approval is not required. ics Engineering (ICE3), Gorakhpur, India, 2020; pp. 467–470.
https​://doi.org/10.1109/ICE34​8803.2020.91228​64.
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