An Egyptian engineer, Mahmoud El Komy, has created a robot that can take coronavirus test samples from persons suspected to have been infected by the contagion.
The robot which is hailed as a game-changer in stopping the spread of the infection from patients to health workers takes swab samples from the mouth of patients.
El Komy spent more than a month in building the robot, WFLA reports. The robot which is fully equipped with a temperature sensor can also detect faces that are not covered in masks as well as distribute healthcare advice.
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“The robot has customized tasks for dealing with coronavirus. It has a mission, including detecting suspected COVID cases, whether in public places, malls, banks, or airports. He can measure a person’s temperature and if he detects that a person has a fever, he sounds an alarm,” El Komy was quoted as saying.
Rwanda has already introduced the use of robots in coronavirus treatment centers and other public places. The robots were being used as the interface between doctors and patients to avoid any possible human contact.
“These robots will support us in different ways but most importantly they will be approaching patients to test temperature and status of breathing among other tasks, which will help us minimize human-to-human contact,” said Rwandan Health Minister Daniel Ngamije.
Apart from being used in treatment centers, the robots will also measure temperatures in other public places such as bus stops and entrances of shopping arcades, he said.
Amid the coronavirus, many countries including China, the U.S., and Japan are using robots to take some of the burdens off healthcare workers in the fight against the virus. Disinfection robot UVD, for example, has been in high demand since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
