ABSTRACT
The current global issue of the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted the push and utilization of all available means to halt its spread. COVID-19 is a highly infectious disease, and continuously monitoring early symptoms could help avert catastrophic devastation. This paper proposes an innovative use of the Internet of Things (IoT) enabled system to efficiently and effectively detect early COVID-19 signs at a relatively low cost. This study adopted an experimental approach in designing and constructing a low-cost hardware system using a Wi-Fi enabled microcontroller, a temperature sensor, and a heart rate sensor for students. The proposed system detected and distinguished normal and abnormal temperature, regular and irregular heartbeat and constantly displayed the student's status in a mobile application. Consistent tests proved that the developed IoT-enabled system was reliable, responsive, and cost-effective. The mass production of this device will aid in the early detection of the disease, thereby mitigating the spread among students, particularly in underdeveloped countries. The paper's merit stems from the microcontroller's intelligence programming and the sensor's operation via the mobile application, which enables low-cost early identification of abnormal temperature and heartbeat irregularities. © 2022, Mathematical Modelling of Engineering Problems. All Rights Reserved.