With coronavirus cases on the rise in Mumbai, authorities in the city are deploying so-called ‘smart helmets‘ to scan people for possible symptoms. The helmets enable healthcare workers to record the temperatures of up to 200 people per minute. It is apparently proving to an effective weapon to scan suspected COVID-19 patients in India’s most populous city. It has been especially helpful in the city’s densely-populated slums.
The helmets, which cost around Rs. 6 lakh, were donated to authorities in Mumbai and Pune. However, there are just two of these helmets in the entire city right now. There’s no word on whether more units are expected any time soon. The devices are in high demand in places like Dubai, making them very difficult to acquire. They were also reportedly used extensively in Italy and China at the height of the outbreak in those countries. It will be interesting to see if other Indian cities will also employ similar technology going forward.
