Battling COVID-19 using machine learning: A review

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2) known as Coronavirus surfaced in late 2019. It turned out to be a life-threatening disease and is causing chaos all around the world. The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared it a pandemic in March 2020. To handle COVID-19 related problems, research in many areas of science was introduced. Machine learning (ML), being one of the most successful stories in recent times is widely used to solve a variety of problems in our everyday life. Here, an overview of machine learning that tackles the pandemic is discussed in the beginning. Various datasets related to COVID-19 are also explored. Diagnosis of this viral disease using CT-Scans, X-ray images, sound analysis and blood tests using machine learning are presented in-depth. Drug and vaccine development using machine learning for COVID-19 are also discussed. Pandemic management and control were also examined. The main objective of this paper is to conduct a systematic review of machine learning applications that fight the deadly virus. This paper helps the researchers to understand and analyse the data trends related to COVID-19 and also prepare for a future outbreak which might happen due to new strains of COVID-19. Challenges and directions for the future are also provided.