AMMAN, April 6, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Jordan on Sunday started to deploy drones
to fight the coronavirus pandemic, joining a host of Middle East countries
using the technology to enforce curfews, deliver public health announcements
and even monitor people’s temperatures.
Jordan has declared five deaths and 323 cases of COVID-19 and says it has
arrested at least 1,600 people for violating a nationwide curfew in force
since last month.
“The armed forces and security services will ensure the curfew is being
respected by using modern technology such as drones and surveillance
cameras,” Minister of State for Information, Amjad al-Adayleh, told a press
briefing late Saturday.
In neighbouring Israel, where the pandemic has seen a flurry of new
technologies emerge designed to contain transmission, authorities are also
using the unmanned aircraft.
Israeli police said Sunday that teams in the northern coastal city of
Naharia were using drones to patrol the beachfront area and enforce movement
restrictions.
A police spokesperson said that the force had also been using the
technology in other parts of Israel in response to the pandemic.
Several states in the oil-rich Gulf have embraced drones in the fight
against COVID-19.
Kuwait, which has largely locked down the country, sent drones to the skies
in mid-March to broadcast messages in multiple languages urging people to
return to their homes.
Later in the month, in the United Arab Emirates, police were using drones
equipped with a loudspeaker in the emirate of Sharjah to order people to stay
home, while police in Dubai have taken similar steps.
The drones were giving instructions in several languages, including Arabic,
English, Urdu, Hindi and Bengali.
Expatriates make up over 80 percent of the UAE population.
In Saudi Arabia, municipal authorities have deployed drones to measure the
body temperature of shoppers in Buraidah, in the north-central Al-Qassim
region, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported in late March.
The drones were fitted with artificial intelligence-enabled thermal
cameras, SPA said.
And in Oman, authorities have used the aircraft to reduce gatherings in
public places in the capital Muscat.
Qatar, meanwhile, announced on Thursday that it was carrying out a drone-
based “awareness drive” that targeted foreign workers, just ahead of the
Islamic weekend.
The move came after images of what appeared to be foreign nationals praying
on the roof of apartment buildings in a Doha suburb the previous weekend were
published by local media.
The Qatari interior ministry’s Twitter account on Thursday posted a video
simulation of a drone directing announcements at South Asian workers.
Ninety percent of Qatar’s 2.75 million people are expats, and many are from
developing countries.
“The Ministry of Interior carries out awareness drive among expatriate
communities using drones,” the English-language tweet said.
“The messages were announced in different languages to stay away from
social gatherings and not to leave home except for necessary purposes.”
Qatar has officially reported three deaths and 1,325 cases of COVID-19.
A densely populated working class district southwest of the capital Doha
known as the Industrial Area has been under strict lockdown since mid-March,
with residents prohibited from leaving, after a number of coronavirus cases
were detected there.