Designers Mike Bodge and Isaac Blankensmith and technologist Brian Moore where trying to follow the health and safety measures suggested by the WHO to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, they were finding it difficult to avoid face touching. “We all work at our desks all day and pretty much touch our faces all the time. We decided to make a tool that can help train us to break that habit" Bodge explained in an interview.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, residents of nursing homes or assisted-living facilities could no longer receive visitations form their loves-ones, a measure put in place to protect them from being infected by the new coronavirus. To help combat the feelings of loneliness and isolation of this elderly population, a group of students from Stanford University started a project called “Virtual Park Bench”.

To combat the isolation of hospitalized patients, unable to receive visitors during the Covid-19 pandemic, a movement in Portugal was created to provide the patients with a means of communicating with their loved-ones. The movement aims to donate 2500 tablets to healthcare facilities around the country, to be used by patients who don’t have other means of communicating with their families.

A team of researchers from ICMC-USP (Mathematical Science and Computation Institute from São Paulo University) have created a software that helps hospitals and other medical facilities manage their protective equipment stock. Personal protective equipment is essential to every facility dealing with Covid-19 patients and shortages of this equipment can greatly increase the risk of infection for healthcare professionals and other workers that might be exposed.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many people were feeling the emotional and psychological burden of the situation. To address this problem, the Lisbon Municipality created a helpline to offer psychosocial support to its residents. The line “Lisboa Liga-te” (Lisbon Calls You) is free-of-charge and it will operate 24 hours a day, even on weekends.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the use of masks was becoming widespread, with the World Health Organization and most national health authorities recommending citizens to wear facial coverings to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

However, standard face masks were proving no to be ideal for everyone. Men with large beards, for esthetic or even religious reasons, found that the regular face masks couldn’t accommodate the beards – they wouldn’t fit under the chin and create the tight seal that ensures protection.

Sixth grader Israel Smith was feeling the emotional and psychological impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. And he assumed that any other kids were feeling the same, having to deal with the constant stream of bad news, as well as the fact that schools were closed and they weren’t allowed to be with their friends due to the social distancing measures.

In the Indonesian Island of Java, a library has developed a mechanism to sterilize books using ultraviolet light. The device is called Dropbox and has the form of a filling cabinet, with six drawers that can fit 14 books each. Inside, there are 5 UV light bulbs that expose the books to the radiation that is able to disrupt the virus genetic material, effectively destroying it’s ability to replicate.

The creators behind Auctus Productions have released a short-documentary about Covid-19, that can be watched in full, for free, on Youtube. The documentary is titled “Frontliners – The Impact of Covid-19 on Healthcare Professionals” and it captures first-hand accounts from professionals working on the frontlines. The documentary focuses on the situation in New York City and Italy, two of the cities that were most affected by the outbreak.

Mikado FM is a radio station from Mali, promoted by the United Nations, which seeks to consolidate peace, harmony and coexistence in the country. With the onset of the COvid-19 pandemic in the country, the radio wanted to provide an important public service and contribute to spread awareness about the disease and, hopefully, save lives.

To help his country fight the Covid-19 pandemic, inventor Richard Aning created a solar-powered handwashing sink. This invention was created to allow people, even those living in remote location, to wash their hands and help control the spread of the new coronavirus.
“This is a system we created to help solve the COVID-19 problem. Imagine we have this on all our streets with the Ghana flag on it, it will attract people to wash their hands,” the inventor explained.

Catalina Lotero and Felipe Guarin are designers and founders of the Whatever Works design studio. During the Covid-19 pandemic, when the first cases of infection outside China started arising, they decided they should “do something to design solutions for the problems that were rapidly emerging”, explained Lotero.

Their major concern fell on the millions of people living in developing countries that did not have easy access to the internet or other reliable news outlets and, as such, wouldn’t get the information necessary to protect themselves and others from the coronavirus.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, many healthcare facilities all over the world were experiencing shortages of protective equipment necessary to deal with infected patients. In order to help solve this problem, a team of researchers from the Louisiana State University created a mobile decontamination unit that cleans protective equipment, allowing it to be reused.

Angus Hartley, a teacher at a primary school in Cape Town, South Africa, created protective screens to keep their students safe in class. Schools all around the world were coming up with solutions for classes to take place while following the required health and safety measures. But that was particularly challenging for the GJ Joubert Primary School since, according to Principal Martin Leukes, the school is very poor. But the teachers, aware of the situation, are always creating new ideas to solve the problems.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, engineer and inventor Michael Aiken developed the “Anti-covid-19 Door Opener” that allows people to open doors by using their feet.

Rajendra Jadhav was worried about the spread spread Covid-19 pandemic. When the first cases were reported in his district of residence, he felt he had to do something to prevent the virus from reaching his village. Jadhav is a self-taught engineer, having gained knowledge through years of designing and developing tools for agriculture, so he decided to put his skills to work and developed a sanitation sprayer that is mounted to a tractor.

A team of researchers at the Medical University of Warsaw (MUW) developed a barrier tent to protect healthcare professional from being infected while treating patients with Covid-19.

Youtube user StupotMcDoodlepip created a Social Distancing Laser Hat to help people maintain the correct distance between each other, to help prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.

The device consists of a rigid hat on top of which there is a rotating laser that draws a 2-meter wide circle on the ground, around the wearers, allowing them to see whenever someone gets too close. The laser used is a 1mW Class 1 laser, which is not harmful to the eyesight.

High School student Sarthak Jain created a doorbell that doesn’t require touch, as a way to do his part in the fight against Covid-19.

"Amidst the pandemic I see everyone wearing masks even while at home. This compelled me to contemplate on all possible ways that this virus could be brought to my household. It struck me that even doorbell can be one of the potential carriers. So I decided to design a smart doorbell", Sarthak explained.

Anthony James Bautista, engineer and assistant professor at the University of Santo Tomas (UST), created a robot to help medical professionals take care of their patients while minimizing direct contact, reducing the risk of infection.