COVID-19 has become a widespread pandemic that has affected thousands of people and businesses. In these challenging times, governments and organizations have been in search of different ways that we as a society can continue to live our lives while living in the “new normal”. One piece of equipment that has been found to be extremely useful are drones. Drones are unmanned aerial vehicles that have various features such as photography, videography, scanning sensors and can carry and deliver goods to any location.
Drones have been helping with disaster relief efforts for sometime now. In our blog post Drones to the Rescue: How Drones are Helping Disaster Relief Efforts, we discuss how drones helped cities and governments combat against flooding, fires and other natural disasters. Due to COVID-19, governments are finding themselves once again turning to drones for immediate action on trying to maintain the overall health and safety of their people. Governments have found drones to be very beneficial against the COVID-19 fight. They use drones for inspection and broadcast, delivery of critical supplies, disinfecting common areas and temperature checks. Take a look below at how different cities are using drones to help navigate through the ever-changing COVID-19 pandemic.
Drones for Inspection & Broadcast
For inspection and broadcast, governments have been using drones in order to oversee urban areas during COVID-19. By doing this, officers can effectively scan an area and broadcast a specific message such as wearing a mask or informing people in a certain area to stay inside. With the virus being known to live on hard surfaces, it became critical for the government to regularly disinfect all public spaces such as buses, parks, etc. Many governments have turned to drones to do so by filling the drones with disinfectants and having the drones fly over places to spray the disinfectant onto public areas.
Check out the video below of how Dubai has been using drones for their new National Disinfection Program.
Drones for Temperature Check
Governments have also begun using drones to provide temperature checks for people entering buildings in order to limit risk from normal temperature checks. Typically, a person would have to get within 6 feet of an individual to take their temperature, putting both individuals at risk. The temperature check that drones are equipped with use infrared cameras to test temperature measurements and can accurately measure body temperature. Having drones perform temperature checks will limit the spread of COVID.
Check out the video below on how a Connecticut town became a testing area for a new and innovative drone surveillance program!
Drones for Packaged Deliveries
Drone packaged deliveries have also been beneficial to governments as drones can carry things such as food to areas in need or medical supplies to hospitals. In the U.S., North Carolina has picked up the use of drones for delivery of medical supplies. Novant Health operates 15 hospitals in the Southeast, one of them being Huntersville Medical Center. While they have no shortage of delivery options, they are testing drones to deliver medical supplies as they believe that drones will be very helpful for future health crises.
The Federal Aviation Administration gave Novant Health a temporary waiver to allow them to fly drones overpopulated areas and Novant Health monitors all drones in flight to makes they are operating correctly and safely. When you initially think of drones, you may think of their use in industries such as film production or even construction. However, drones are incredibly versatile and will most likely begin to be seen more in the healthcare industry. In these challenging times, it is reassuring to see that such big problems are being solved by unique solutions and new technologies.
GraVoc is an FAA Part 107 Certified Drone service provider. We are located in Peabody, Massachusetts just 15 minutes north of Boston on the North Shore and we are licensed to fly drones for commercial use throughout the United States. Check out our most recent flights and services by visiting our Drone Services page!
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