It is argued that your smartwatch, as well as other smart wearable devices that continuously measure vital statistics from users such as heart rate, skin temperature, and other physiological indicators, can provide sufficient information to help identify possible coronavirus infection behind a few days before a person is diagnosed with the virus, after being tested. 
These devices include Apple Watch, Garmin and Fitbit watches, as well as watches from other brands from smart wearable device manufacturers, which can indicate a person has COVID-19, even before the known symptoms appear, at which point they became symptomatic. and tests can reveal the presence of a virus. This is supported by research from a number of leading academic and healthcare institutions, including Mount Sinai Health System and Stanford University in the United States. Many believe that wearable technology can play a very important role in containing the pandemic as well as some other infectious diseases.
Researchers at Mount Sinai Health System found that the Apple Watch can detect subtle changes in a person's heartbeat, which could provide evidence and a signal that the person may have contracted the coronavirus. This indication or signal may come as early as a week before the person feels unwell or the infection is detected after the test.
The study analyzed what was defined as heart rate variability - the change over time between a person's heartbeats, which is also an indicator of how well a person's immune system is working. People with COVID-19 showed lower heart rate variability, while COVID-negative people showed higher variability in time between heartbeats.
It should be noted that high heart rate variability does not reflect and does not indicate an increased heart rate, but rather indicates that the human nervous system is sufficiently active, adapts and can more effectively deal with stress.
The study involved about 300 health workers at the Mount Sinai health facility, who wore an Apple Watch for 153 days from April to September 2020.
Apple did not participate in the Mount Sinai Study, but does recognize the potential of its smartwatch.
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The data obtained from smartwatches can be very useful in the fight against the pandemic, as it is estimated that more than 50% of cases of coronavirus are transmitted by asymptomatic people without even knowing that they are carriers. This is stated in a report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week.
A separate and independent study by researchers at Stanford University in which participants wore a variety of activity trackers from Garmin, Fitbit, Apple and others found that about 81% of participants with COVID-19 experienced increased height. at rest, the heart rate was up to nine full days before symptoms began, which, according to the study, indicated the onset of symptoms.
Stanford researchers used smartwatch data to correctly identify up to 66% of COVID-19 cases, four to seven days before participants showed symptoms, as reported in their study published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering last November. The study looked at data from 32 people who tested positive for covid-19 among more than 5000 participants.
A Stanford University research team has developed an alarm system that alerts owners of smart devices to an increased heart rate over a long period of time.
It is believed that such technology could help mitigate some of the observed shortcomings with regards to coronavirus testing.
Manufacturers of these smart wearables are also considering using this technology to fight the virus and have begun funding research in this direction.
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