With over 160,000 confirmed cases and 11,000+ deaths, Egypt has continued to battle the COVID-19 pandemic utilizing all resources at its disposal to sustain the health and wealth of the North African nation. Recently, the country received a 300,000-dose shipment of the Chinese Sinopharm shot as a donation from China and is in ongoing negotiations with the Chinese government to become a manufacturer of the vaccine to meet supply and home and in other African countries.
Egypt is also facilitating development of digital healthcare alternatives, one of which is it’s robot assistant reducing exposure to healthcare workers by assisting with the running of tests on suspected COVID-19 patients.
Mechatronics engineer, Mahmoud el-Koumi, who designed the robot, called Cira-03, says it can help limit exposure to infection and prevent the transmission of the virus.
His creation, which has a human-like face and head and robotic arms, can take blood tests, perform echocardiograms and X-rays, remind patients to wear face masks, and display diagnostic test results to patients on a screen attached to its chest.
“This robot is specially designed to help the medical staff during Covid-19 times. It is a medical robot capable of multi-tasks, it can deal with patients in their beds, chest scans, fever screening, and face mask detection. It is more precise than humans and the feedback from patients has been positive” said El-Koumi
Cira-03 is being tested at a private hospital in Tanta, about 60 miles outside Cairo, taking the temperature of anyone suspected of having the coronavirus.
