Ghana First Nation To Use Drones To Deliver Covid Vaccines To Rural Communities

Ghana has become the first nation to launch a nationwide program to deliver coronavirus vaccines with drones.

Enlisting the services of San Francisco startup, Zipline Ghana has started delivering the vaccines as part of the WHO’s first shipment of jabs through its COVAX programme that aims to provide developing countries with COVID-19 vaccines.

On Tuesday when 4,500 doses were distributed across the Ashanti Region in the country’s south in 36 separate journeys in a partnership with the Ghanaian government and UPS.

“Not only does this make Ghana the world’s first country to deploy drones on a national scale for the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines, but is also a giant effort in ensuring equitable access and enabling Ghana to fully utilize its healthcare infrastructure to deliver vaccines,” Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo said in a statement.

Each Zipline drone flight is fully automated and monitored from its distribution center. Able to do 100 miles round-trip on a single battery charge, travel up to 80 mph, and carry four pounds of cargo these drones could be vital in the fight against covid in the rural areas of the global south.