Photo: Xinhua

Chinese officers in rural areas are creatively using drones to prevent local residents from gathering outside without wearing masks during the nationwide battle against the deadly novel coronavirus.

The coronavirus keeps spreading across the country and has infected 9,810 people, with 213 deaths as of 19:40 on Friday. Chinese experts and officials have warned that counties and villages deserve close attention for disease control and prevention work due to comparatively poor medical facilities and low awareness among residents in these places. 

Officials in counties and villages have reportedly been hanging up slogans and releasing jingles in local dialects suggesting that people stay at home during the epidemic and try to avoid gathering together to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Now they have hit upon an innovative measure: using drones to supervise residents and avoiding facing them in person, to prevent the risk of infection.

According to a viral video spread on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo on Friday, officials in a town in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, spotted some people playing mah-jong in a public place. 

"Playing mah-jong outside is banned during the epidemic. You have been spotted. Stop playing and leave the site as soon as possible," a local official said through a microphone while looking at the screen for a drone. 

"Don't look at the drone, child. Ask your father to leave immediately," the official said to a child who was looking curiously up at the drone beside the mah-jong table.

The innovative usage of drones has cheered up Chinese netizens who have not been able to indulge in outdoor entertainment events this Spring Festival because of the coronavirus. 

The approach is not only creative but also effective, netizens said on Weibo. 

"Good usage of high tech!" one Weibo user said. 

In another video, a policewoman on duty at a crossing in Shuyang county, East China's Jiangsu Province, used a drone to closely monitor whether passengers were wearing masks. 

"The handsome guy who is on the phone, where is your mask? Put it on please," the policewoman said through a loud-speaker. 

"The girls who are eating food while walking, put on your masks please. You can eat when you arrive at home," she said. 

"Please make sure you wear masks when going to public places during this special period," she said. 

Chinese people have been trying to amuse themselves at home during the last week. Some have pretended to go fishing using fish tanks at home, as well as playing badminton and table tennis at home. 

Their creativeness also found expression amid a heavy shortage of masks in the country. People have been using pomelo and orange peel as well as plastic bottles as masks. Some even wear large transparent plastic bags as protection suits in public places to prevent infection, according to pictures spread on social media platforms.  

Global Times