• Drones are being used by Spanish police to warn people to stay at home.
  • Spain has declared a state of emergency and ordered its citizens to stay indoors apart from necessary trips, after seeing a sharp increase in coronavirus cases in recent days.
  • According to World Health Organization figures, Spain has endured over 7,700 cases of coronavirus and 288 deaths as of March 15.
  • China has previously deployed drones and other advanced technologies for similar purposes.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Drones are being used by Spanish police to warn people to stay at home.

Spain has declared a state of emergency and ordered its citizens to stay indoors apart from necessary trips, after reporting a sharp rise in coronavirus cases.

Footage published Sunday by BBC News shows eerily deserted Madrid streets policed by drones. The drones are controlled by human officers who relay warnings through them via radio.

In the footage, one officer can be seen relaying a warning from health authorities that people should vacate public parks and return home.

You can watch the footage below:

According to World Health Organization figures, Spain has seen over 7,700 cases of coronavirus and 288 deaths as of March 15.

The spike prompted Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez' government to declare a state of emergency on Friday.

All its 40 million-strong citizens have been asked to stay indoors apart from necessary trips - a policy that had already been implemented by virus-ravaged Italy.

Worldwide, the death toll from COVID-19 has now passed 6,500 with over 169,000 confirmed cases of the disease, despite a significant reduction in the number of new cases in China.

Spain's tactics bear some resemblance to reported surveillance tactics used by China, which deployed drones, robots and facial recognition software in an attempt to curtail the outbreak. China's English-language newspaper the Global Times shared footage in January showing a drone telling off citizens for going out without masks or to stay indoors.