In an effort to insulate medical professionals, attending to COVID-19 patients, from infection, a tech company in India's Tamil Nadu has donated four humanoid robots that can deliver medicine to patients in their isolation wards. The company has donated robots to a government health facility in Tiruchirappalli in the southern part of Tamil Nadu.
The hospital dean told national news agency ANI, that "They'll be used if district administration permits".
Earlier in March, news about two robots distributing masks and sanitisers in the state of Kerala also had made headlines.
The robots introduced by a government agency – Kerala Startup Mission – were also spreading awareness about the coronavirus.
Shashi Tharoor, a Congress parliamentarian had tweeted a video of the robots at the time.
The perks of allowing robots to share some of the burden is a reduction in the risk of infection to medical professionals and the fact that robots can work uninterruptedly for long hours.
Over the weekend, India's total toll of positive COVID-19 cases crossed the 1,000 mark. According to the federal Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, there are currently 1,024 positive COVID-19 cases in India, including 48 foreign nationals along with 27 recorded fatalities.