India's worst-affected city due to the novel coronavirus, Mumbai, has now deployed 'smart helmets' in order to intensify and ramp up the screening process for the infection. The high-tech gadgets, which have been newly-commissioned in India's financial capital, will allow screening of the densely-populated slums in quick time. Previously deployed in Dubai, China and Italy, these portable thermal scanners can record the temperatures of several people altogether per minute and could possibly turn out to be a key aspect in ridding Mumbai's 18 million population of the fatal disease. 

Speaking to news agency AFP, Neelu Jain, a medical volunteer associated with the non-profit group Bharatiya Jain Sanghatana said, "Traditional screening methods take a lot of time. You go to a slum with 20,000 people and it takes you three hours to screen 300 people,". She further added, "But when you use these helmets, all you have to do is ask people to come out of their homes, face them and you can screen 6,000 people in two-and-a-half hours,".

Although there are only two smart helmets in use now, both of which were donated to authorities in Mumbai and Pune, identifying and isolating residents who have been infected by COVID-19 will reportedly take a long time. Estimated to be worth around Rs 6,00,000, the helmets have been garnering quite a high demand, especially in places like Dubai, which in turn has made its capacity to be multiplied quite difficult. 

It has been 120 days since the Indian government implemented the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak. So far, the country has recorded 11,55,191 coronavirus cases, which includes more than 28,084 deaths. Among the states that have seen the highest number of cases are Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Gujarat. As of now, the recovery rate across the country is seeing a steady rise and stands at 62.7 percent. Globally, more than 1.48 crore COVID-19 cases have been confirmed while over 6.1 lakh people have died so far.