An American health care logistics company, Zipline is fighting coronavirus using contactless drone delivery technology to transport testing samples in Ghana. The country has one of the highest COVID-19 testing rates in Africa with nearly 70,000 tests conducted during this pandemic.
The remote technologies company said it expects to operate this new daily service for the duration of the government’s Covid-19 response efforts, marking the first time in history that autonomous drones have been used to make regular long-range deliveries into densely populated urban areas.
Zipline CEO, Keller Rinaudo says, “using a contactless drone delivery to transport COVID-19 test samples will allow the government to more quickly respond to the pandemic and help save lives.”
In addition to shipping test-kit flights, Zipline is using drones to ferry unused tests, protective equipment like gloves and masks, and supplies including vaccines and cancer drugs from its distribution centers to the rural health facilities. The company is doing similar work in Rwanda.
This is the first time that fleet of red and white drones have been used to make regular long-range deliveries into densely populated urban centres from difficult-to-reach rural areas.
The service began Friday, when 51 test samples were collected from patients at rural health facilities and transported to the company’s distribution centre in Omenako, Ghana. Over the course of four separate flights, the company delivered those 51 samples to the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research in Accra for testing and analysis.
At 2019, Zipline was valued at $1.2 billion. The medical product delivery company headquartered in South San Francisco, California. Zipline began drone deliveries in Rwanda in 2016. In Ghana, the company began using drones in April 2019 to deliver vaccines, blood and medicines. and primarily delivers blood.
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