On Thursday, March 26, Draganfly announced that it has been chosen and agreed a deal to deploy its COVID-19-sensing drones in Australia. Working with the Australian Department of Defense and the University of South Australia, the Draganfly deployment will see it using its “pandemic drones” to remotely monitor and detect people with infectious and respiratory conditions to help stop the further spread of the disease in Australia. The project has an initial budget of $1.5 million.

Using their onboard tech, the drones are capable of monitoring fever-associated temperature, heart and respiratory rates from a distance, as well as detecting people sneezing and coughing in crowds or places where groups of people may work or congregate.