Shanghai, China has deployed a robot dog in the streets barking COVID-19 safety instructions through a loudspeaker. This loudspeaker is overtly strapped to its back, and it is warning instructions to people amid one of the tightest lockdowns the city has faced since the beginning of the pandemic.
The small black quadruped scuttles down an empty city street while blaring out instructions via a megaphone loosely slung around its back with what appears to be black and yellow caution tape.
Shanghai is currently facing one of its most serious waves of confirmed cases of COVID yet. The city has been in full lockdown since the end of March. This is due to a new subvariant of the Omicron variant that has increased the cases.
Robot dogs aren’t the only machines patrolling the streets there. Chinese officials have also reportedly used drones that also told residents to stay at home.
Residents cannot even go out to dispose of their trash.
Shanghai has reported less than 8,000 asymptomatic cases and 438 symptomatic cases on April 3, a far cry from much more severe past outbreaks of COVID in other parts of the world.
