Two robot nurses named Asha-meaning hope-have been successfully deployed at a COVID-19 First-line Treatment Centre at the Thottackad Medical Centre at Eraviperoor. It reduces the exposure of the frontline workers to those affected by COVID.
ASHA Robot
Eraviperoor grama panchayat has once again shown its sagacity in the face of challenges. An ASHA [Accredited Social Health Activist] worker in the district testing positive for COVID-19 was what prompted the panchayat to explore new ways to ensure adequate protection to health-care workers at the hospital.
A Tiruchirappalli-based IT company, Propeller Technologies, worked on technological modification of the two four-ft-tall robots. The robots will take medicines, bedsheets and food weighing up to 8 kg, to each hospital room. The robots will also facilitate real-time interaction with patients for their family members even from a distance of 15 km.
[This is not the first time Eraviperoor is hitting the headlines. The village, located in Thiruvalla taluk, was the first grama panchayat in the country to receive the National Award for Public Administration in April 2015 and the first panchayat in the State to get ISO-9001 certification for its Primary Health Centre in August that year].
Other Technological Interventions
Nightingale-19 Robot was used in Kerala for serving food and medicines to the COVID-19 patients. It will also provide patients the facility to interact with their relatives and health workers through its built-in display. The robot has the capacity to carry food and water for 6 patients (25 kg) at a time. The health workers will be able to control the robot from a maximum distance of 1km through a remote control.
The ‘UVRova ST’ robot is an intelligent robot with the ability to kill 11 types of viruses and capacity to disinfect places such as hospital operation theatres, restaurants, hotels etc, without using any fumes or residual compounds. It uses ultraviolet light for the disinfection process. This product will be useful in areas such as operation theatres, patient rooms and ICUs where the infection rates are high.
Corona Combat Drone is a drone that can sanitize large congested slums and colonies within a short duration. It is having a 10-liter tank in which the sanitizer is being filled and sprayed.
