The Ministry of Health has deployed drones to catch suspected and unreported cases of COVID-19 by measuring the temperature of people remotely and check the spread of the pandemic. 

H. E. Dr. Ahmed bin Mohammed al Saidi, Minister of Health launched the technology, which has shown positive outcomes in many countries. The technology uses artificial intelligence including robots, drones and the internet of things (IoT) in trying to detect the infected persons early, which will help to manage the crisis properly. 

A joint team consisting of researchers and academics from the Engineering College of the Sultan Qaboos University and Azm Technology Company, has been formed to develop the smart system to monitor human temperature remotely. 

This technique aims to detect the suspected and unreported cases to avoid the outbreak of the infection due to social contact. The drones are provided with advanced thermal imaging to measure the temperature remotely.

The major challenge of the current drones is the lack of required high accuracy to measure the temperature outside the buildings. The team will improve the measuring process by using algorithm of artificial intelligence in order to be more reliable in dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak.