Ghana has deployed drones to deliver coronavirus test samples to health facilities across the country.
Zipline, the world’s only national scale on-demand drone delivery service, is the company helping to deliver this service.
The company said it has begun delivering these COVID-19 test samples with its drones flying test samples collected from patients in more than 1,000 health facilities located in difficult to reach rural areas of Ghana.
These test samples are then taken to laboratories in Accra, the nation’s capital, and Kumasi, the country’s second-largest city.
The revolutionary new service improves Ghana’s ability to monitor the spread of COVID-19 more quickly.
It is one of several ways Zipline is helping Ghana respond to the pandemic.
“Zipline is dedicated to helping Ghana in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo.
“Using contactless drone delivery to transport COVID-19 test samples will allow the government to respond to the pandemic and help save lives more quickly.”
The service began on Friday, April 1, when 51 COVID-19 test samples collected from patients at rural health facilities were transported to Zipline’s distribution center in Omenako, Ghana.
Over the course of four separate flights, each more than 70 miles/116km’s round tip, Zipline delivered the 51 samples to the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research in Accra for testing and analysis.
The company will also be delivering COVID-19 test samples collected at regional hospitals near its Mapong distribution center to the Kumasi Center for Collaborative Research, a nearly 60 mile/100km round trip flight.
The first such delivery took place on Saturday, April 18, 2020. The company expects to operate this new daily service for the duration of the Government’s COVID-19 response efforts.
This marks the first time in history that autonomous drones have been used to make regular long-range deliveries into densely populated urban areas.
It is also the first time that drones have been used in this way to deliver COVID-19 test samples.
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Source: Africafeeds.com
