Police in Malaysia are using drones to detect people with high temperatures in public spaces as part of Covid prevention measures, according to local media.
The drones, which can detect people’s temperatures as high as 20m above ground, emit a red light to alert the authorities if someone has a high reading, Bernama, Malaysia’s state news agency, reported.
Malaysia entered a near total national lockdown last week in an attempt to halt rising daily infections, which had reached more than 9,000 by the end of May.
Though daily cases have since fallen, health director general, Noor Hisham Abdullah, has warned that the majority of new infections and deaths were from unknown contacts. “One of the reasons is the emergence of new variants in the community which have higher infectivity and mortality rates,” he said in a statement on Monday, urging people to stay home.
Under the lockdown rules, only two people from each household are allowed to go out to buy essentials, do non-contact sport, or seek medical treatment near to their home. Schools and shopping malls are shut, though much of the manufacturing sector has continued to operate with a reduced workforce.
Malaysian police have previously warned they will use drones to enforce earlier travel restrictions, with officers in some areas also stating they would carry out surprise home visits to ensure people were following rules.
China reportedly used drones last year as part of its virus prevention efforts. According to a video posted by state-controlled Global Times, drones were used to spray hand sanitiser, and tell citizens to stay home. In one video filmed in Inner Mongolia region, a drone hovers over an elderly woman, telling her “yes, aunty, this is the drone speaking to you. You shouldn’t walk about without wearing a mask.”
Rohaimi Md Isa, police chief of Terengganu state, told Bernama that officers had begun using the temperature monitoring drones over recent days. “Although we have 157 monitoring teams, they move from one location to another. They are unable to monitor every location at once, including detecting symptomatic individuals in public places,” he said.