As the cases of coronavirus continues to rise in Africa, Ghana leads the way in testing for the virus as it has commenced transporting of COVID-19 test samples from infected persons to the country’s designated testing centres.
With the innovative approach towards the fight against the Coronavirus Disease, the Ghanaian government becomes the first to deliver COVID-19 test samples to labs using the drone technology.
Amid the pandemic, some nonessential services have been allowed to operate in Accra and Kumasi, the two main metropolitan areas in the country. However, gatherings of large amounts remain banned and schools stay closed. “My decision to do this came after increasing the country’s capacity to fight the pandemic, including aggressive contact tracing and expansion of testing” says Ghana’s President, Nana Akufo-Addo.
In a recent development, an entire camp of 244 construction workers were ordered to be quarantined after three of them tested positive for the Coronavirus Disease. The Municipal Director of Health services for a rural district in Ghana, Bismark Sarkodie, had to give the order so as to stop the spread of the novel COVID-19.
After two weeks of being quarantined, members of the construction camp were desperate to resume work, however, Bismark couldn’t release them. He had to ensure each person in the camp were cleared of the virus, which meant fresh tests had to be carried out. In a unique fashion, using the autonomous drone technology, test swabs of patients in the camp were flown to the testing facility in Accra within minutes.
Eventually, the workers were allowed to go out of quarantine two days later when the results of their test came back via SMS as negative. Bismark expressed joy that his district was cleared of the virus and that Ghana is the first nation in the world to use drone technology to test for COVID-19. He said that testing is the most important thing, and whatever it takes to make it faster, makes it better.
The Ghana Ministry of Health expanded its partnership with Zipline, an American company that uses drones to deliver mediacal supplies. A system was set up by Zipline to deliver samples collected in more than 1,000 health facilities across the country. It may not seem like much, but Ghanaian government has reduced the number of hours and even days it takes to get a COVID-19 test from suspected rural victims to the laboratory located in the urban center.
Zipline’s drones are automated, but they’re also being monitored and, when needed, controlled, by humans. On April 17, on Zipline’s first flight, 51 samples were flown from the Omenako drone distribution center to the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research in Accra, 45 miles away, in what could be the first time that drones have been used to deliver COVID-19 test samples. It is the first time autonomous drones have been used to make regular long-range deliveries into populated urban areas. With this development, the drone technology paves a new path in the fight against the novel coronavirus.
Since the first case recorded in Ghana during the pandemic, the country has confirmed 1,000 persons who tested positive for the virus. In order to keep the number of cases low and the economy to remain open, the government will need to expand it’s operations on contact tracing and strict isolation of suspected and confirmed cases. “Ghana’s problem isn’t the lack of tests, It’s the distribution that was the nightmare. The government wanted to ensure that testing would have the same level of confidence in rural areas as it does in the city. That’s where we come in” said Zipline’s general manager in Ghana, Daniel Marfo, in a recent interview.
The COVID-19 test samples are packed in special red boxes using guidelines issued by the World Health Organization and then placed inside the belly of the drone. The drone is then put on a launcher, and it’s off to its destination for delivery. Zipline’s drones are automated but they’re also being monitored and, when needed, controlled, by humans. The delivery is contactless. Once at the testing facility, the drone opens up its belly and drops the box filled with samples using a parachute to ease the landing. A health care worker sprays the box down with disinfectant and takes it inside to be processed.
For nearly a year, Zipline has been delivering vaccines and medications to hospitals around Ghana. It also operates in Rwanda, where it uses its drones to deliver blood samples.
Wilmot James, a visiting professor at Columbia University who has advised the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on biosecurity, has been following Zipline’s operations for years and says the company has a clean track safety record. But he stressed that biosafety is critical in this kind of work and the fact that there is an inherent risk to these types of operations.
In Ghana, Zipline’s fleet of drones have the capacity to transport up to 15,000 tests a day, in 300 flights, from two collection points. Ghanaians and the government however, hope that demand will never get to that level. There are two drone ports owned by the company which could be brought online as well. They have the capacity to serve about 2,000 rural health clinics and about 10 – 15 million residents.
Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, the drone delivery company had planned to launch in the United states, however, Ghana was the first to resume operations. Keller Rinaudo, Zipline’s CEO says that now that plans have been accelerated, the company is working with the Federal Avaition Authority to get the necessary approvals. The company will now focus on distributing test kits and PPE in the United States later in the year, just like it is doing in Ghana.
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In the fight against COVID-19, Ghana has conducted more than 68,000 tests during the lockdown, and some 18,000 testing samples remain outstanding. However, should the cases rise, the country might be in a dire situation as it has only 67 ventilators available in its public hospitals for a population of about 31 million.