The Taguig City government will use robots in assisting patients afflicted with coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Mayor Lino Cayetano said the city’s “Robonurses” will be tasked to “physically carry medications and other supplies to COVID-19 patients while the nurses look on from the monitor at the head of the robot."
The Robonurse was created by the Taguig Robotics Team (TRT), a group of students who created the robots that went viral during the Taguig Cyber Graduations.
“Amid the pandemic, Taguig has also shown that it is unafraid of technology. This time, to minimize the hazards for our health workers, we will be deploying our ‘Robonurses.’ All these steps are a testament to our commitment to an effective COVID-19 response,” Cayetano said on Sept. 8 at Lakeshore Hotel Mega-Quarantine Facility where the Inter-agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF)-Coordinated Operations to Defeat Epidemic (CODE) Team turned over face masks to the city under the “Mask para sa Masa” program.
The mayor touted the city’s response to COVID-19, saying, “On Sept. 1, the average number of active cases for the whole National Capital Region (NCR) was 898; Taguig’s average was 591. In active cases per 100,000 individuals, NCR was at 184 and Taguig at 60.” By Sept. 6, there were only 463 active cases, lower than 591 average. As of Sept. 8, the city has fatality rate of 0.83 percent compared to 1.44 percent in the NCR.
The city has conducted 41,624 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests to date, or 4.22 percent of the population. It is estimated that by Dec. 31, the city will have 100,000 results.