It’s quite clear that COVID-19 will be with us for a long time and there’s no practical way to eradicate it completely, because it’s highly infectious. The best way we can do is to limit the spread of this disease. Digital technologies can help to protect us. Apple Watch is a very versatile device, because it can track blood oxygen level, physical activity, heart rate, stress level, sleep quality and others. Here are ways we can be better protected against COVID-19 with Apple Watch on our wrist:
Blood oxygen tracking
The pulse oximeter in our Apple Watch can accurately measure oxygen saturation. Despite having abnormally low level of oxygen, you may not have breathing difficulty. It’s a condition that the health professionals call as silent hypoxia. This is one of the symptoms of asymptomatic COVID-19 and the Apple Watch could sense if you have prolonged low blood oxygen level. If this happens, you may ask the family doctor to know if it’s necessary to have another COVID-19 test.
Heart rate tracking
Researchers have found that Apple Watch could help to identify COVID-19 before regular test procedures can detect it. It appears that people who have been recently infected by COVID-19 shows variability in their heart rate. It means, there’s irregular time variation between two heartbeats. Apple Watch gives us a non-invasive ability to find out whether the immune system of our body is at work. People who have lower variability could be dealing with the COVID-19 infection. With the Health app on your iPhone, you can calculate HRV based on data that Apple Watch acquires.
Healthy habits
Apple Watch could help you develop a healthy habit. It’s very clear that good hygiene will help to prevent the transmission of COVID-19. With GPS connectivity enabled, the Apple Watch will remind you to wash your hands. With the 20-second timer, the device can also detect whether you wash your hands long enough.
Protect people with higher risks
It’s a fact that some people have higher risks of severe reactions, due to pre-existing health conditions. Chronic respiratory illness, heart failures and diabetes could make COVID-19 more dangerous. With Apple Watch Series 4 or newer, the ECG app can measure your heartbeat rhythm, atrial fibrillation and heart rate. Apple Watch can detect if you have potentially serious cardiovascular illnesses, which can become worse if you have COVID-19. This means, you need to be far more careful to avoid getting infected by COVID-19.
Boost mental health
It is important to combat anxiety and stress during pandemic to keep yourself focused on the most important things. When people are distressed, they will have irregular breathing pattern. Often, by reminding yourself to breathe in and out properly, you will have calmer mind and you can see things more clearly. You only need to go to Settings> Breathe and configure the Breathe Reminders feature. You adjust the number of breaths that you should have each minute. During a stressful time, this feature allows you to think calmers and it is amazing how many changes you can do only by being calmer.
