The Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir El- Rufai disclosed
this in a statement issued to newsmen and signed by his Special Adviser on
Media and Communication, Mr Muyiwa Adekeye on Wednesday.
Rufai said the revolutionary new service would use drones to
make on-demand deliveries of hundreds of different vaccines, blood products,
and life-saving medications.
The new solution is to increase access and reduce medical
waste, key stock of blood products, vaccines and life-saving medications.
All these will be stored at Zipline’s distribution centers
for just-in-time delivery.
Health workers will place orders by text message or call and
promptly receive their deliveries in 30 minutes on average.
The drones both take off from and land at Zipline’s
distribution centers, requiring no additional infrastructure or manpower at the
clinics they serve.
The drones fly autonomously and can carry 1.8 kilos of
cargo, cruising at 110 kilometers an hour, and have a round trip range of 160
kilometers—even in high speed winds and rain.
He said the service would operate 24 hours a day, seven days
a week, from three distribution centers with each equipped with 30 drones and
deliver to more than 1,000 health facilities serving millions of people across
Kaduna State.
Rufai said that all the three distribution centers together
would be capable of microtargeting the delivery of more than six tons of
medical products each week over more than 60,000 square kilometers.
He said: “Kaduna State is focused on delivering one of the
best public healthcare systems in Nigeria.
“The state has upgraded 255 primary health centres, one in
each political ward, to improve access to health care services.
“It is also implementing a supply chain transformation
programme in the health sector, including the installation of a Pharmagrade
warehouse, to efficiently service the
needs of hospitals for medicines, consumables and vaccines.
“Our primary health board is recruiting and training 3000
officers to manage these systems and ensure that health facilities do not
experience stock outs.
“While we celebrate
our successes, we must also recognise that we have much more work to do to
create universal access to critical healthcare for all.”
According to the governor, the agreement with Zipline builds
on and adds value to the initiatives to strengthen the capacity of the Kaduna
State health system.
“This new emergency drone delivery service is a great
solution to deliver vaccines, blood and other lifesaving products instantly
when time is of essence.
“It will help ensure that millions of people in Kaduna State
will always get the care they need, ” he said.
Also, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Zipline, Keller
Rinaudo said where Nigerians live should not determine whether or not they have
access to the medicine they need.
Rinaudo said, ”That’s why I’m so proud of our partnership
with Kaduna State.
“Our work together will help transform the quality of care
for millions and help make Nigeria a world leader in using technology to expand
universal healthcare access.”
The revolutionary new service is expected to launch
operations in the second quarter of 2021.
It is part of the state government’s vision of using drone
delivery to establish universal, seven-days-a-week access to lifesaving and
critical medicines for most of its more than eight million citizens over the
coming years.
Zipline drones will
make on-demand and emergency deliveries of blood products, vaccines, and
life-saving medications.
In addition to expanding access to routine and emergency
medical deliveries, the new drone delivery service will also expand access to
the COVID-19 vaccine, particularly for rural and hard to reach populations.
Zipline has built an end-to-end, cold chain distribution
capability that allows it to safely deliver frozen and ultra-low COVID-19
vaccines and medical products.
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