To protect health workers in Taguig City, the local government on Wednesday will deploy a “robonurse” inside their mega quarantine facility.

“This time, to minimize the hazards for our health workers, we will be deploying our ‘Robonurses’,” Mayor Lino Cayetano said in a statement.

Cayetano said the robots will carry medications and other supplies to COVID-19 patients while the nurses look on from the monitor at the head of the robot.

The robot nurse was made by the Taguig Robotics Team, the same group of high school students who created the robots used during the city’s cyber graduation last May.

According to George Tizon, Taguig's Education Office chief supervisor, robot nurses were made from one of the robots used during the cyber graduation.

The body used for the remote controlled robot was fiberglass.

Tizon said a fiberglass company owner volunteered to provide the materials after watching the cyber graduation.

“It is designed like this to make sure that physical contact between the COVID-19 patient and medical health personnel will be prevented. In giving public service, we make sure that everyone is protected,” he said in a TV interview.

Health personnel can communicate with the patient through the monitor and speaker attached to the robot.

“If ever there will be an emergency or the patient needs physical help, the nurse assigned in the quarantine facility can see them and can immediately respond,” said Tizon.

As of now, there is only one robonurse available at the 500-bed capacity Taguig City Lakeshore Hotel Mega Quarantine Facility.

The city has a total of five quarantine facilities to cater COVID-19 patients.

Taguig said they recorded 5,667 confirmed cases where 5,024 recovered and 50 died. Ella Dionisio/DMS