Africa came to the public scene in the COVID-19 conversation when some scientists said that the vaccines produced by researchers should be tested in Africa and that brought about reactions from Africans including famous ones like Didier Drogba and Samuel Eto’o.
However, Africa is in the scene again as an East African nation announced its desire to fight the COVID-19 pandemic with the use of robots.
As of May 22nd, Rwanda had 314 confirmed cases of the virus, the East African country has enlisted the help of five anti-epidemic robots to battle the virus. The names of the robots are Akazuba, Ikirezi, Mwiza, Ngabo, and Urumuri. They were received by the country’s Minister of Health and Minister of ICT and Innovation last week.
According to Rwanda’s Ministry of ICT and Innovation, they will be used for mass temperature screening, monitoring patient status, and keeping medical records of Covid-19 patients,
The robots can carry out multiple duties that will help control the spread of the pandemic. They can screen up to 150 people every minute for symptoms of the virus such as high temperature and dry cough.
According to Rwanda’s minister of health, Dr. Daniel Ngamije, these robots also have the capacity to capture sound and visual data of patients and can notify health workers on detected abnormalities.
“These robots will perform temperature screening in our treatment centers. The robots will detect people walking in not wearing masks so that with the voice, the command post can quickly be informed and respond,” he said.
FOOD DELIVERY AND MORE…
The robots have the capacity to deliver medicine, food, and other essentials in place of frontline workers to Covid-19 patients undergoing treatment, Ngamije said.
They are programmed to communicate properly and can also educate health workers and patients on the dangers of the virus and how to stay safe, he added.
It seems Rwanda is following the footsteps of countries like Tunisia and the US in using robots to fight the virus.
Isn’t this safer since robots cannot contract the virus? Should other African nations follow suit? What do you think?
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