A German hospital has introduced a robot to help clean and spread cheer to patients and staff amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Franzi, as she's known, has been entrusted with cleaning the floors at Munich's Neuperlach Hospital – but she also has the ability to talk and even sing.

Hospitals have often been a bleak place during the pandemic, but Franzi has been well received, according to the hospital's head of maintenance Tanja Zacherl.

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"She brings a lot of variety and joy here," Zacheri said. "Employees and patients alike are delighted with a little originality. When we talk to Franzi, it relaxes us a little in our daily lives. 

"We had a patient recently who came down here three times a day every day to see Franzi," Zacheri continued. "She enjoyed it and said she had become friends with her."

The robot was supplied by the hospital's cleaning contractor Dr Rettler, and has meant human cleaners can focus on other surfaces while Franzi gets to work on the floors.

"We are going through a period of pandemic, of coronavirus," explained the cleaning company's Constance Rettler. "We have to disinfect as much as possible, it's very important, and we said to ourselves, 'Franzi can take care of some of the floors and that gives us more time to disinfect the surfaces.'"

Video editor: Paula Harvey