Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor:  Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report

AsiaWire

An army of drones is being deployed in villages and cities across China to disperse disinfectant as the Wuhan coronavirus escalates in severity.

The respiratory disease presenting with similar symptoms to pneumonia is now a global health crisis, the World Health Organization declared yesterday (30th January).

China’s health commission says the novel coronavirus strain, the precise origins of which are still a mystery, has so far killed 213 people, infecting 9,692 others in the country.

In villages and major cities across the country, where the outbreak has reached every one of its regions, recreational, agricultural and even police drones are being repurposed to disperse disinfectant in an attempt to prevent it from spreading further.

Social media videos taken in the coastal provinces of Jilin, Shandong and Zhejiang show droves hovering in the air while disinfectant liquid is sprayed from a device attached to the underside of each machine.

In the city of Heze, Shandong, one villager offered his personal drone, which was used to disinfect an area of 16,000 square metres (172,000 square feet) in a single morning.

The unmanned aerial vehicles are proving to be a much faster method of delivering public hygiene than traditional means either on foot or by lorry.

Similarly, agricultural and police patrol drones have been repurposed in China’s south-western Sichuan Province to release disinfectant in areas not otherwise easily accessible, such as on roofs and in gardens.

Crop protection officer Qin Chunhong, from the village of Longfu, Sichuan, reportedly disinfected his village on 30th January using his own drone.

He said: “Drones can cover a much wider area and achieve very good disease prevention results.

“As disinfectant is harmless to humans, it doesn’t affect anyone’s daily life.”

As more than 50 million Chinese citizens remain locked down in over a dozen major cities, disinfectant drones have also been filmed flying past skyscrapers and through gated communities.

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