Colombia drones seek out people with fever

[Judi Lynn]

Sean Captain

- May. 20th 2020 6:14 pm ET



In need of a checkup? If you’re in Colombia’s capital, Bogota, you may get one whether you want to or not. The city is deploying drones with infrared cameras to spot residents who may have fevers due to COVID-19.

Police in Colombia’s capital are deploying drones to monitor public places for anyone who may be running a fever. (They also looks for crowds breaking stay at-home orders.) If the drone spots someone with a potentially high temperature, authorities dispatch a medical team to check for coronavirus symptoms.

“It gives us an approximate body temperature and directs the case to a national system so it can be attended to,” Captain Jorge Humberto Caceres, head of the police drone unit, told Reuters.

The Colombia drones monitor only temperatures and groupings of people in public places, say the police. The drones are not able to monitor people in their homes. Still, it’s a very intense form of scrutiny, and possibly not that accurate. Draganfly, the maker of a “pandemic drone” to seek coronavirus symptoms, rejected using just a thermal camera as an accurate measure of whether someone has a fever.

More:
https://dronedj.com/2020/05/20/colombia-drones-seek-out-people-with-fever/

[Igel]

1. Sentence should have stopped, "who may have fevers."

The "due to COVID-19" isn't something they can check via drone.