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LEVERAGING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY DURING A PANDEMIC 
 
Kasimov O.M. – Postgraduate of Tashkent
State University of Economic,
Head of joint degree program between
Tashkent State University of Economic
and IMC Krems (Austria).
The WHO recognized the Coronavirus (hereafter COVID-19) as a pandemic on 
11 March 2020 as Italy, Iran, South Korea, and Japan reported surging numbers of 
cases. Soon after it became uncontrollable, even quarantine did not stop spreading the 
COVID-191. The COVID-19 pandemic had negative influence not only to human’s 
health and to existence of human being but also social-economic impact. Governments 
of different countries, especially those where the spread of COVID-19 was out of 
control, started several tough policy, including lockdowns. Due to that, the most of 
businesses across industries started suffering. From one hand social distancing, staying 
at home, limitations helped to lower spreading of virus, from another hand 
economically it decreased income flow of SMEs and even TNC, increased 
unemployment and poverty rate, supply change management was damaged and was 
inefficient. Big institutions published their forecast for current and upcoming years 
GDP growth of countries, which does not inspire optimism. For instance, World Bank 
states that Uzbekistan’s GDP will increase to 1.5%, in contrast, at the beginning of the 
year the prediction of the growth was 5.6%. Another financial institution, ADB, 
predicts that Uzbekistan’s GDP will grow at 4.7% in 2020, down from 5.6%. For 
comparison, advanced economies such as US, Japan, and Euro Zone are also 
challenging situation, where all these countries GDP is declining in 2020 prediction -
7.0%, -9.1%, and -6.1% respectively. In this situation, every country is reacting 
differently, some are using more strict regulations and limitations, while others are 
using more soften ways. For instance, in Italy and Spain, people were not allowed to 
leave their homes. While in UK, people could go out only for groceries and for a short 
time. In contrast, Sweden stood out in its approach to pandemic. Primary schools, 
1
World Health Organization. (2020). WHO announces COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. Retrieved from 
http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/health-emergencies/coronavirus-covid-19/news/news/2020/3/who-announces-
covid-19-outbreak-a-pandemic December 12, 2020 

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restaurants, bars, nightclubs could operate as long as they keep social distance and 
quarantine norms. Countries that have maintained low COVID-19 per-capita mortality 
rates appear to share strategies that include early surveillance, testing, contact tracing, 
and strict quarantine. The most successful countries relied on adopting digital 
technology and integrating it into policy and health care. The integration of digital 
technology into pandemic policy and response could be one of several characteristic 
features of countries that have flattened their COVID-19 incidence curves and 
maintained low mortality rates. In the race to contain the spread of a highly 
transmissible virus, countries that have quickly deployed digital technologies to 
facilitate planning, surveillance, testing, contact tracing, quarantine, and clinical 
management have remained front-runners in managing disease burden. The 
comprehensive responses of countries that have been successful at containment and 
mitigation can provide insight to other countries that are still facing a surge of cases.