The management of Fly Zipline Ghana Limited on Tuesday delivered two rounds of vaccines to the New Tafo Government Hospital in the Abuakwa North District in the Eastern Region by drones in a test run ahead of the inauguration of its Medical Drones Distribution Centre at Omenako in the Eastern Region.

The drones delivered two rounds of vaccines from the Omenako centre to the New Tafo Hospital — a distance that takes more than an hour to cover by road — in just 15 minutes.

The first drone delivered the vaccines to the hospital at 11:25 am after it was launched at 11:10 am while the second drone arrived at 11:45 am.

The deliveries were commenced soon after the management of Zipline Ghana had taken journalists round the Omenako Drone Centre earlier in the morning to witness the company’s state of readiness for the operation.

Launch

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is expected to inaugurate the Omenako Centre, the first of its kind in the country today from where medical drones will deliver vaccines to about 500 health facilities in the Eastern and parts of the Volta Regions.

Omenako is the first of four centres that will deliver a total of 150 critical medical supplies to 2,000 health facilities across the country.

The other centres to be located in the Ashanti, Northern and Western Regions are expected to be rolled out by the end of the year.

Milestone

The Head of Communications at Zipline Ghana, Mr Justin Hamilton, explained that today’s inauguration of the Omenako Centre was a major milestone for the company and health care in Ghana because the delays associated with delivering critical medical supplies would become a thing of the past.

He said there were processes underway to ensure that the remaining three centres were established by the end of the year.

Source: Graphic.com.gh