Page 77 - World Airnews Magazine May 2020 Edition

NEWS DIGITAL

ZIPLINE DRONES TRANSPORTING

COVID-19 TEST SAMPLES IN

GHANA

By Graham Warwick

facilities were transported by drone from in under an hour,” the company says.
Zipline’s distribution centre in Omenako As countries combat COVID-19, shifting
Zipline drones are delivering COVID-19 to a medical research institute in Accra for the primary delivery of vaccines and
test samples collected from rural clinics in analysis. The delivery required four 70-mi. medicines to drones from trucks helps
Ghana to laboratories in the capital Accra roundtrip flights. reduce the risk of exposure, Zipline says. In
Zipline is also to begin daily delivery of
and Kumasi, the country’s second-largest COVID-19 test samples collected at regional Rwanda, the company is working to deliver
city. hospitals near its Mapong distribution chemotherapy medications to cancer
The service improves the government’s centre to a research centre in Kumasi, an patients who are unable to travel to a
ability to monitor the spread of the novel almost 60-mi. roundtrip by drone. This will hospital due to the pandemic.
corona virus, the company says. mark the first time autonomous drones Zipline expects to begin delivery
Zipline was already operational in Ghana, make regular deliveries into densely operations in the U.S. “within weeks” of
delivering medicines and vaccines by drone populated urban areas. receiving FAA approval, now in the works.
from four distribution centres to 2,000 Drone delivery avoids a time delay of The emergency service will focus on
health facilities across the country. The hours to days while a truck collects enough distributing scarce test kits and protective
company launched operations in Rwanda in samples from rural hospitals before equipment and helping keep vulnerable
2016, delivering blood for transfusions on returning to the city, Zipline says. That non-COVID-19 patients with chronic
demand to rural hospitals. delay also increases the risk that samples conditions away from hospitals. Q
The new service began in Ghana on are damaged in transit due to broken Article courtesy : https://avia-
April 1, when 51 COVID-19 test samples cold-chain storage. “Now, a single test from tionweek.com/business-aviation/
collected from patients at rural health a rural area can be transported for analysis aircraft-propulsion/zipline-drones-

World Airnews | May Extra 2020
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