CAPE TOWN - GHANA became the first country in the world to receive a consignment of Covid-19 vaccines by drone.
The COVAX doses, which had arrived in Accra a week earlier as part of a cargo of 600 000 vaccines manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, were collected by health workers after a precisely-targeted parachute drop.
By day’s end, Zipline, the world’s first national-scale drone delivery service, had dropped a total of 36 deliveries of Covid-19 vaccines, facilitating 4 500 vaccinations.
The UPS Foundation, Zipline and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, first teamed up to deliver vaccines by drone across Ghana almost two years ago for immunisation and other health purposes.
For Gavi, the aim was to support Ghana’s vision for the expansion and improvement of its national routine immunisation programme, and by doing so create a platform that can benefit the wider health agenda.
Since then, Zipline’s fleet of fixedwing flyers has delivered more than a million doses to rural healthcare centres, many of which can be tough to reach overland, or which struggle to ensure an unbroken cold chain.
Zipline is a California-based automated logistics company that uses drones to make on-demand, emergency deliveries of high-priority products including emergency and routine vaccines and other health products.
Now, with the Covid-19 vaccine deliveries, this is bearing fruit in terms of the broader health benefits.
On-demand deliveries of vaccines and other medical essentials are already “an integral part of daily life” at thousands of health facilities in Ghana. “Across the country, Zipline is a mission-critical, reliable and resilient part of Ghana’s medical supply.”
The company is now working towards helping the government of Ghana achieve what they say should be “the fastest, the most convenient, safest and most equitable rollout of Covid-19 vaccines anywhere in the world.”
The use of drones by Ghana and Rwanda illustrates how tough conditions can inspire innovation.
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