Pune-based duo creates online portal for easy access to coronavirus information

PUNE: Pune-based duo Chinmayi Dumbre and Arif Amirani have made the daunting task of finding information about availability of beds, oxygen and medicines a breeze.
One just needs to glance through the website www.covidpune.com, developed by them in March, to have all the relevant information at fingertips.
“We believe in giving authentic data by working directly with the government.To reduce the chances of human error in compiling and updating the data, the website uses web crawlers, bots and other automation techniques. Along with the names of hospitals where beds are available, we also publish the geographical location and when the data was last updated. The information on the website is updated every 15 minutes,” said Amirani.
Options for search, selection of regional languages, colour coding of data make it a convenient user experience even for those not well-versed in technology.
While Amirani is in charge of the technological aspects, Dumbre looks after product evolution. The initiative is funded by them. The project took two-and-a-half months to complete from the stage of conception to launch.
The inspiration to develop the portal was spurred by a personal loss. Dumbre lost his father to Covid-19.
“We initially started the portal to provide relevant information to people living in Pune but as the second wave hit, and more people started leveraging the platform, the advisers on board suggested that we cater to people in other cities as well,” said Dumbre.
Apart from Pune, users can also avail information about facilities available in cities like Nashik, Nagpur, Surat, Delhi, Rajkot, Gandhinagar, Beed, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Bengaluru.
The website also features information for Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Telangana.
“If you’re based in Pune or Bengaluru but have relatives in Delhi or Rajkot, you can use the portal to check all the information and help them make necessary arrangements,” said Amirani.
“We get calls, messages and emails from users providing us feedback and letting us know how the portal has helped them. Many have requested us to include more regional languages, which we are working on at present as the aim is to make the portal useful for people at grassroots’ level as well,” added Dumbre.
Over 8lakh people from Pune have accessed the portal from Pune. Overall, 15lakh people from across the country have visited the portal.
“I spent hours trying to find a hospital to admit my parents who tested positive, and then I came across this website. I was able to immediately contact some hospitals on the list and got lucky. This is a great service during such hard times,” said Harini Ravichandran, a city resident.
“Looking through various posts on social media for any kind of Covid-related information is a waste of time. This website made it possible for me to find a bed for my father-in-law,” said Irfan Shaikh, another resident.
“Parents of two of my friends, were critical. My friends ran from pillar to post trying to locate beds, oxygen, Remdesvir injection etc. We could provide care to our parents only because we happened to come across this website through a forwarded message,” said Siddharth Karia.