Coronavirus: Stanley Medical College Hospital staff with ‘robotic nurses’ in Chennai. (Twitter/C Vijayabaskar) Coronavirus: Stanley Medical College Hospital staff with ‘robotic nurses’ in Chennai. (Twitter/C Vijayabaskar)

In a bid to curtail direct contact with people infected by the coronavirus and help avoid spread of the disease, robots have been deployed to serve food and medicines to patients in isolated wards at Tamil Nadu‘s government-run Stanley Medical College Hospital in Chennai.

State Health Minister C Vijayabaskar visited the hospital on Friday and inspected the functions of “robotic nurses” deployed in coronavirus wards.

#update: Visited #Stanley Hospital morning.Checked the functions of #roboticnurses to be used in #corona wards, that can deliver food. &medicine.This will limit the amount of direct contact doctors and nurses have with patients, thus reducing the risk of infection.@MoHFW_INDIA pic.twitter.com/GNL6LSWaAP — Dr C Vijayabaskar (@Vijayabaskarofl) April 3, 2020

In a demonstration for the minister, the robot (which has an insignia that “I can talk”) carried a jar of water, a tumbler and a bottle of hand sanitiser to a predetermined spot.

Stanley hospital, one of the oldest in the city, is also among the designated facilities for treatment of COVID- 19 patients.

Tamil Nadu reported 102 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, pushing the number of positive cases in the state to 411.

Here’s a quick Coronavirus guide from Express Explained to keep you updated: What can cause a COVID-19 patient to relapse after recovery? | COVID-19 lockdown has cleaned up the air, but this may not be good news. Here’s why | Can alternative medicine work against the coronavirus? | A five-minute test for COVID-19 has been readied, India may get it too | How India is building up defence during lockdown | Why only a fraction of those with coronavirus suffer acutely | How do healthcare workers protect themselves from getting infected? | What does it take to set up isolation wards?

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