Huawei has made an open offer to the Indian government that it is prepared to offer its services here for managing the spread of the coronavirus. Huawei claims it deployed technology available at its end to good use in the Hubei province in China, the epicentre of the coronavirus for a long period before Italy and now the US.

Huawei says since the 5G service is already operational in China, it helped the authorities in Wuhan, the capital of the Hubei province using its 5G technology. There were four distinct areas where it could make a difference. These include live video-streaming, remote collaboration, remote diagnosis and treatment, and remote protection. All these can be replicated in India, in the 4G environment also, according to Huawei.

The government of India will now have to react if it wants Huawei to enter the scene. The difficulty with Huawei is it is always looked at with suspicion since it is quite close to the Chinese government and the security agencies won’t easily approve Huawei’s proposals.

These are emergency situations and if there is a proven way to tackle the spread of the COVID-19 virus, it may be worth taking the call.

Though the number of cases being reported on a daily basis is not so alarming, particularly when compared to some of the other countries like the US and Europe, this virus has surprised many by the ferocity with which it strikes and makes a comeback even in some cases. It may be wrong to conclude that the 21-day lockdown will solve all the problems and that the virus would go away.