Bismark Sarkodie had a situation on his hands. As a director of city health services for the county Ghana, he had ordered an entire warehouse of 244 construction workers in quarantine, when three of them tested positive for the new coronavirus. Two weeks later, the campers were were desperate to get out but Sarkodie could be as long as he was not sure that each resident was clear and that meant re-examine the original patient. But on 17 April, instead of driving evidence swab two hours in the capital, Accra, for analysis, a quarter of a health facility had sold. Within minutes the way of an autonomous drone test were winged. Two days later, the results came back via SMS: negative. Workers may be quarantined. On any other day, says Sarkodie, it could perhaps due to the fact that Ghana has surprised is to use the first nation in the test of 19 world-COVID drone technology; Instead he was just relieved that his neighborhood the disease was unclear. “Testing is the most important, and what it takes to make it faster, make it better,” he says. It may not seem like much, but Ghana is time to shave and days, even before the time needed to get a 19-COVID victims of rural urban laboratory suspicion test with the help of drones delivery, which, until last week, mainly used were transported for medical care important in the opposite direction. Well, Zipline, an American healthcare logistics provider, turns his service to fly samples from rural areas difficult to reach in the capital, with its fleet of red and white drones. They ‘the first time that autonomous drones to make regular long-haul deliveries in densely populated urban areas, have been used and paves the way for the drone technology, a new role in the fight against COVID-19 to play. The company plans to finally put its technology in use in the United States, but now says the program in Ghana focuses on Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo. “Using non-intrusive test samples drone COVID-19 delivery shipping is the government more responsive to the pandemic and can help to save lives.” With Ghana has conducted nearly 70,000 tests so far one of the highest rates of testing in Africa. But unlike the US, where the pads and the chemical reagent tests required are almost complete, Ghana has a different kind of waste: analyzing thousands of remote rural clinics, and only two places in the country where the pads can become. Until last week, all the tests had to be transported to the laboratory on the road, a trip that can last up to six hours. Some remote clinics, only to send an ambulance reluctant only a test, he would wait a few days for enough samples collected to make the protocols of prolonging patients deserving of anxiety trip delay and contact tracing need to make the virus spread stop. Stay up to date on the growing threat to global health, by signing up for our daily newsletter crown. So far Ghana has a little ‘more than 1,000 confirmed cases. If this number to remain slow and the country’s economy to remain robust open government should contact tracing and the strict separation carried out by suspected and confirmed cases, none of which can be achieved without extensive testing. “Problem of Ghana is not the lack of evidence,” Daniel Marfo, Zipline general manager in Ghana, told TIME over the phone. “It ‘distribution that the nightmare is. The government wanted to make sure that the tests would provide the same level of confidence in rural areas as in cities. That’s where we come in.” Once collected, either in clinics or community health workers in the field of the test stick with packed ice in specially designed containers biologically safe, equipped with a parachute and place in the bellies of the drones. The hinges, as they are called, is not actually end up in the laboratory. Instead, they rush their payloads in specific drop zones to be resolved to where notified companion arrival waiting SMS, expect to collect. The round trip around which could take more than a day to drive up takes less than 30 minutes. Fleet zipline in Ghana comes every day to transport up to 15,000 tests in 300 flights from its two collection points – although Ghanaian hopes demand will never reach that point. The company has more than two drones ports that can be worn as either on-line, residents of about 2,000 rural clinics and serve 10 to 15 million Euros. The company launched in Rwanda to hand over in 2016 as a service of blood products and other essential drugs in rural clinics. They expanded in Ghana a year ago, where they carry about 200 different medical products, including vaccines, blood, plasma, personal protective equipment (PPE) and antidote to health facilities that are dependent and otherwise long dangerous road sections to get medical care lifesaver, now all the small deliveries are made through drone to minimize human contact and transmission of the virus. Before the outbreak Zipline crown was planning to begin this year in the United States. Now these plans have been accelerated, Rinaudo, he says, and the company is working with the Federal Aviation Authority in order to obtain the necessary permits. But instead of blood products and drugs supply, as originally planned, Zipline will focus on the distribution of scarce resources, such as test kits and PPE, as it does in Ghana. In the further course you could start also provide routine medications to keep vulnerable patients with chronic diseases from hospitals where the risk of exposure to the virus. because of travel restrictions in Rwanda has Zipline stuck at home delivers chemotherapy drugs started rural patients. For Marfo, the possible applications of the technology are a rare glimmer of hope in a dark time. “Before COVID we never thought to deliver once DPI or evidence,” said Marfo. “We never thought it would be able to fly safely to us in urban areas, and so quickly. Internally, we did not think we were ready, but the urgency of the situation has opened a new way to see how the drones can be put to work in this difficult time. “Please send suggestions, stories and lead from the front in time virus @ .com.
Drones provide COVID-19 test in Ghana. Could the US be next?
