BEVERLY HILLS, February 11, (THEWILL) – An American company, specialising in medical product delivery, Zipline, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Kaduna State government to facilitate the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, using drones.
The South San Francisco, California-based company, which designs, manufactures, and operates delivery drones, will help Kaduna distribute the vaccines in the difficult terrains of the state.
The Special Adviser to the State Governor on Media, Muyiwa Adekeye, said, the government took the major revolutionary step to reverse the losses to COVID-19, which has cost the state 57 lives.
According to statistics from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), 7,804 persons have been infected with the virus in the state. While 7,467 persons were treated and discharged, 280 cases are on admission.
With the first-of-its-kind innovatory MoU, Zipline would deploy Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), better known as drone technology, to deliver vaccines and other medical supplies to areas that may be difficult to penetrate due to challenging topography and bad roads.
This method of procurement and distribution of vaccines and medications is a novelty in Nigeria pioneered by the Kaduna State government.
Other states are reportedly negotiating with the company to enter a similar working relationship.
The clamour for the company’s services is influenced by the success rate of the medical delivery firm, which has the distinction of having delivered more than one million doses of other vaccines in Africa over the past year.
The novel delivery of vaccines and other drugs in Kaduna is planned to start in the second quarter with 30 drones working full-time from three distribution centres.
To accomplish this goal, the state Governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, said, his government has upgraded 255 primary health centres, installed a pharma-grade warehouse and is recruiting and training 3,000 officers to manage the facilities.
The working relationship between the Kaduna State government and Zipline, according to Adekeye, will help the state to overcome the challenge of cold-chain storage, while allowing drone shipment of Covid-19 vaccines.
“It will help ensure that millions of people in Kaduna State will always get the care they need”, el-Rufai said after the signing of the MoU.
The governor explained that the deployment of the drone technology will ensure that medical consumables will be delivered to many parts of the state facing security challenges and a bad road network.
In December 2020, the Kaduna State governor went into self-isolation after testing positive for Covid-19.
“As a survivor of the deadly disease, his willingness to deploy drone technology in the fight against Covid-19 ahead of other states and the Federal Government is a clear demonstration of empathy with victims and the love for his people”, a senior state official said on Wednesday.
The collaboration between Kaduna and Zipline follows a similar partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO), which last year supported the screening of 2,306 persons for Covid-19 and 2,506 persons for Tuberculosis (TB), using Chest X-Ray, and GeneXpert machine through mobile testing in Kaduna State communities.
The state is reportedly faced with an over 50% reduction in hospital attendance and access to services due to disruption of routine essential services and programmes resulting from prioritization of Covid-19 response.
In renewed efforts to tackle the virus alongside TB in Nigeria, WHO Nigeria in collaboration with the state government and KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation, co-facilitated implementation of an integrated community testing for the two disease conditions using a mobile itinerant TB diagnostic facility called “Wellness On Wheels” Truck (WOW Truck).
A few years ago, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) Office of Innovations realising that the need to deliver life-saving materials in both humanitarian and development contexts can face a range of challenges started to use drone technology to address transport, connectivity and better emergency preparedness in some African and Asian countries.
Zipline was at the centre of this, operating distribution centres in Rwanda, Ghana, and the US. The company began drone deliveries in Rwanda in 2016.
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