Rwanda Receives Robots to Fight COVID-19
The robots donated to the Rwanda’s Health Ministry by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Rwandan Ministry of ICT and innovation will be mainly used for temperature checks, monitor patient’s status and keep medical records of COVID-19 patients.
Rwanda will put the five high-tech robots into use to fight COVID-19 in its treatment centres, the five anti-epidemic reboots are called Akazuba, Ikirezi,Mwiza, Ngabo and Urumuri.
In a series of tweets, the Health Ministry said, “These high-tech robots have the capacity to screen 50 to 150 people per minute, deliver food and medication to patient rooms, capture data and notify officers on duty about detected abnormalities.”
The mobile robots will serve as an interface between the doctor and the patient, which will reduce exposure of health to possible infection of the pandemic.
“Because of these capabilities, they will enhance health worker’s efficiency in fighting COVID-19 in our country, it is exciting to see different institutions join hands to seek solutions fight this virus, it is yet another milestone that technology is used to improve healthcare in Rwanda.” Said Minister of health Daniel Ngamije.
Talking to the New Times, the Minister said, “Medics and other frontline workers visit patients’ room many times to deliver medication, meals, carry out tests among other things, and this may increase their risk of contracting the virus”.
United Nations Development Programme representative Stephen Rodriques said, “The project marks the beginning of a great collaboration that is part of a broader partnership with the Est African country.”
Rwanda was among the first countries in Africa to introduce a smart card system for city buses and to deploy drones for the delivery of medicine. And also, during their lockdown they have successfully deployed drones to enforce law and order, and to curb the spread of the virus.
Rwanda has recorded a total of 308 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and 209 recoveries with no death recoded so far.
By Sakhe Dolonga
