The Sadar Hospital at Chaibasa, the district headquarters of West Singhbhum some 65km west of Jamshedpur, on Tuesday got a remote controlled device that can supply medicines and other essentials to suspected and positive Covid-19 cases.

The device, nicknamed Co-Bot (short for Covid robot), is the brainchild of 2010 BIT Mesra computer scientist and 2014 batch Indian Administrative Service officer Aditya Ranjan who the deputy development commissioner of West Singhbhum.

The Co-Bot, DDC Ranjan said, is aimed at providing food, water and medicines to confirmed and suspected Covid-19 patients without the need for human interaction.

“The objective is to minimise interaction between ancillary healthcare workers and paramedical staff with positive cases. However, this robot would not serve the purpose for those positive cases who are critical and on ventilator. All these efforts are being made beforehand in right earnest to gear up for any positive case which might come up in our district,” said West Singhbhum deputy commissioner (DC) Arava Rajkamal.

The Co-Bot has been developed by DDC Ranjan along with a few technocrats in Chaibasa in a span of just two days and by using material from his garage.

“I got the idea from seeing videos from developed countries during their fight against the Covid pandemic,” DDC Ranjan said. “We have used items which are already in use.

“For example, we have cameras which are used in the strong-room during elections and also used normal WiFi. A single Co-Bot costs around Rs 25,000 but it saves huge expenses in terms of PPE (personal protective equipment) and health kits which have to be worn by a large number of paramedics and ancillary workers. The Co-Bot also saves manpower during such crisis,” he added.

The Co-Bot is remote controlled, fully automatic and can be operated from a range of up to 200 feet. It has WiFi-enabled camera, speakers and a mic for two-way communication, and is also waterproof — which comes handy during sanitising after coming near a patient.

“A doctor or nursing staff can see through the camera installed in the robot if the patient picks the correct medicines or not. The cameras can also keep vigil on the interaction between patients in the isolation wards. The speaker will enable staff to communicate with the patient and also the patient can air his/her grievance through the speaker and mic,” added Aditya Ranjan.

While one Co-bot was launched in Chaibasa, another model is also ready to be deployed at West Singhbhum district’s only Covid-19 dedicated hospital, the South Eastern Railway Hospital in Chakradharpur.

New isolation beds were also launched on Tuesday in Chaibasa and Chakradharpur.

“The high-tech isolation bed is covered with a special type of plastic which can be easily fumigated. It is a room in itself, aimed at preventing infection from patient to patient,” DDC Ranjan explained.

At the moment there are 30 such high-tech isolation beds in Chaibasa and 20 in Chakradharpur.