Can fitness trackers warn us about the next Covid-19 attack?

Xiaomi-backed wearables maker Huami published a study on detecting the spread of infectious disease using data from 1.3 million users

Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, is slowly returning to normal after an unprecedented lockdown. (Picture: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg)

The tiniest changes in your heart rate, temperature and sleeping patterns could help give forewarning for the next big pandemic.

That’s according to researchers from the wearables company Huami after collecting data from 1.3 million users in Europe and China. The researchers hope their prediction model could eventually be used to alert health authorities of future infectious disease outbreaks.

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