Malaysian police claim to have been monitoring people’s temperatures with drones.
Officials claim that drones can detect body temperature variations from up to 65 feet in the air.
Following a dramatic increase of COVID-19 infections, Malaysia has been under lockdown since last Tuesday.
According to local accounts, Malaysian authorities have been deploying drones to detect people with high temperatures in crowds.
According to Channel News Asia, the drones have been deployed in Malaysia’s Terengganu state over the previous three days, citing a state police statement dated Monday.
The drones can detect body temperatures from as high as 20 metres (65 feet) in the air, according to police head Rohaimi Md Isa, and emit a red light if temperatures exceed 37.5 degrees Celsius (99.5 degrees Fahrenheit).
Rohaimi described the drones as “very” beneficial.
On Tuesday, Malaysia implemented its third countrywide lockdown as the country’s intensive care facilities battle a new wave of serious COVID-19 cases.
According to Channel News Asia, the number of patients in intensive care units reached new highs for the 13th day in a row on Sunday.
Drones were used to monitor temperatures in India, Italy, Oman, the United States, and China, according to Slate in May 2020.
However, the method was criticised. Over privacy concerns from local residents, Connecticut police cancelled a plan to deploy drones to detect heat signatures and track distance between people.
According to local news sources, Malaysian police utilised drones to play messages warning civilians to stay home during a previous lockdown.
Malaysian police have already stated that they will employ drones to enforce earlier travel restrictions and that officials in some places may do surprise home visits to ensure that people are following the laws.
Officers had been employing temperature monitoring drones in recent days, according to Terengganu state police head Rohaimi Md Isa. “Despite the fact that we have 157 surveillance teams, they are always moving from one location to the next. They can’t monitor every site at the same time, including spotting symptomatic people in public places,” he explained.
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