The secretary of the knowledge-based economy and culture-building technologies development headquarter reported the 50% participation of online health activists in the CoronaPlus Movement, adding: the online and digital ecosystem has welcomed the CoronaPlus Movement in order to use the capacities of the field in the fight against corona based on the slogan of stay home.

The corona crisis showed the abilities of the innovation and technology ecosystem in the country, especially when the activists of the ecosystem have worked together to respond to the call made by the Vice-Presidency and to produce various preventive products and equipment to fight the disease. This was the first step.

The next step of “CoronaPlus” movement is for online businesses and startups to use the capacities of the ecosystem in dealing with corona.

In terms of progress made in CoronaPlus Movement, Karami expressed: this movement is a type of support package provided by the Vice-Presidency for online, digital and virtual areas to develop online services and increase success in this field.

Karami continued: according to the movement, startups active in nine fields of online education, online transportation, online health, online exercise, online leisure and tourism, online content production, social innovation, online shops and ideas will be supported.

The advisor to the vice president for science and technology affairs presented statistics on registration of startups in the movement, affirming: in less than a week, several startups joined the movement and more than 250 startups registered in the movement until April 16^th, 2020. Meanwhile, we have witnessed the 50% participation of online health activists as pioneers of the movement. In addition, more than 120 participants have participated in this area.

Karami also marked: in addition, the activists of online shops and social responsibility are ranked second with 17% participation. On the other hand, the third rank is related to online education with 11% participation. The next ranks are related to social innovation, online content production, innovative ideas, online exercise, online transportation, and online leisure and tourism.

In terms of registration based on type of company, the president of the information and communication center stated: knowledge-based companies, startups and creative companies are all on the list of applicants to use their capacities to improve activities in the area of service provision.

 Karami also asserted: there is good distribution in the country and requests have been made in various provinces. According to statistics, Tehran and East Azerbaijan Province have had the most request, followed by Kurdistan, Razavi Khorasan, Golestan, Isfahan, Semnan, Qazvin, Qom, Sistan and Baluchestan, Lorestan and Kermanshah provinces. 

According to Karami, most support requests were related to information and advertisement on television, stating: after TV ads, most support requests are related to financial supports. Infrastructural support, digital marketing, elimination of barriers and receive of licenses are ranked next.

Karami added: the evaluation committee include the digital economy and automation technologies and soft technologies headquarters, which initiated assessments since the first week after the call. Evaluation sessions continue until registration of all applicants. For more information, please refer to corona.isti.ir.

A report by the public relations and information center of the Vice-Presidency for science and technology affairs