disease-2019 (COVID-19/2019-nCOV). It had a close genetic structure to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in January 2020. Afterwards, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared COVID-19 as a novel flagship health pandemic from China, with a size of 65-125 nm in diameter [1,2]. As per the reports by the WHO, as of 10 October 2022, there are 618,521,620 confirmed cases, with 6,534,725 reported deaths. Across the globe, vaccination initiatives have started and a total of 12,723,216,322 vaccine doses have been administered. As per the reports of _WorldoMeter_ on 10 October 2022, the most affected COVID-19 countries are the USA, India, France, Brazil, and Germany [3]. The virus infection symptoms include fatigue, cough, fever, headaches, and diarrhea, although recently, 25% of new cases are asymptomatic. The incubation period is 5-6 days, with a 14-day median [4]. Moreover, the multiplicative viral rate worldwide is estimated to be 2.4-3.58%, which is relatively higher than the influenza epidemic had a rate of 1.8% [3]. Thus, to flatten the curve trajectory of average mortality rates worldwide, increased immunity is required against COVID-19. To leverage the immunity built against COVID-19 and future pandemics, we need to build an ecosystem where social distance monitoring, sanitization, and rapid inspection and monitoring are the key elements [5]. These three are described as threefold functionalities (3 FFs) and play a crucial role in our fight against possible future pandemics. According to the WHO, around 70% of the world population need to be immune against the COVID-19 by 2022. The immunity-building process has been initiated via vaccinations, but people have to incorporate the 3 FFs as part of their life to leverage a permanent solution to mitigate the prolonged effects of the virus [6]. COVID-19 is potentially transferable through solid surfaces such as glass, plastic, and stainless steel and becomes inactive via proper sanitization [7]. As the 2019-nCOV virus detection happens in the post-incubation period, the affected persons can become carriers of the virus and thus infect the maximum number of persons in their vicinity. Therefore, social distancing of six feet is required among persons to slow the virus spread [8,9]. Moreover, proper inspection and monitoring of affected patients with their tagged geo-locations are required to maintain historical information on infection trials and potential spreads [10]. To address the requirements of 3 FFs at such massive scales, pandemic UAVs need to be deployed in containment zones to decrease human intervention and, thus, the rate of spread. Recently, UAVs have been deployed in China to bring COVID-19 testing samples for quick medical diagnosis of infected patients and supply medicines to the hospitals where COVID-19 patients are being treated [11]. As depicted in Figure 1a, in a geographical range, once a zero patient is identified (not even a single case in the area), UAVs can facilitate early reporting of COVID-19 infection to reduce the impact of casualties in comparison with manual reporting. In addition, UAVs communicate with GS over a geographical location to monitor infected zones and report statistics to governance organizations. Currently, UAVs operate over wireless communication channels such as IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), or cellular networks such as long-term evolution advanced (LTE-A), or through low-powered sensor networks such as ZigBee, Bluetooth, and Z-Wave. However, UAVs operate in diverse environmental conditions, where they suffer from limitations of low bandwidth, intermittent delays, and frequent disconnections [7]. To address these issues, researchers have proposed a fifth-generation (5G)-enabled new radio (NR) with optical backhaul units that support backward compatibility to legacy cellular networks [13]. It addresses the bandwidth and low-latency concerns of real-time responsive UAV operations.