The Tirunelveli corporation has started using drones again to spray disinfectants in crowded public places and at containment zones with narrow lanes to check the spread of COVID-19 as the number of fresh cases is on the rise.
The practice, introduced last year during the total lockdown, was found to be effective and protected sanitary workers from the harmful effects of the disinfectants.
Moreover, when the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, evaluated the efficacy of this procedure in killing SARS Cov-1 virus, it was found that the area of coverage was six times more, compared to spraying the disinfectants manually. “A drone, powered by petrol, can lift 16 litres of disinfectant. So it can be used to cover a vast area, which a battery-powered drone cannot,” said Corporation Commissioner G. Kannan.
Higher Education secretary and district’s Monitoring Officer Apoorva, who chaired a COVID-19 review meeting, and Collector V. Vishnu witnessed the use of drone in disinfection operation on Saturday. “If this exercise yields desirable results, we’ll increase the frequency of use in the anti-COVID-19 operations,” Mr. Vishnu said.