Drones could soon be used to assist in South Africa’s Covid-19 vaccine rollout programme by delivering doses to rural communities.
The California-based start-up company, named Zipline, has already delivered more than 2.5 million vaccine doses, along with other critical medical supplies in Ghana and Rwanda.
Zipline has assisted in delivering life-saving medical products, since entering the African market in 2016.
Zipline has its own distribution centres and a fleet of almost 200 specialized drones – that can deliver payloads that weigh up to 1.8kg within an 80 km range. Earlier this year Zipline entered an agreement with Nigeria to assist with the delivery of medical supplies in Kaduna State. This follows a recent partnership with Pfizer, which looks to develop an end-to-end cold-chain distribution solution for the temperature sensitive Covid-19 vaccines.
To help with the cold-chain and expansion plans for the rest of Africa, Zipline revealed that they have raised $250 000 million (R3.6 billion) in new funding.
New investments from Fidelity, Intercorp, Emerging Capital Partners and Reinvent Capital will be used to improve its automated-delivery systems and fleet of drones.
Sources: Business Insider
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