Zipline, a medical logistics firm, and the Ghana Ministry of Health have delivered one million COVID-19 vaccine doses via its automated, on-demand drone delivery system.
Mr Daniel Marfo, Zipline’s Senior Vice President of Africa, said on Wednesday in Lagos, that its partners of had released select findings from a new third-party report, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
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According to him, the findings show the impact of Zipline’s instant logistics system on Ghana’s health system.
Marfo said that the data demonstrated significant increases in the availability, reliability and range of inventory at health facilities.
He said that it would address supply chain challenges like lack of visibility, uncertain demand forecasting and shipment delays.
Marfo said that the firm was proud to play a key role in Ghana’s healthcare transformation.
“They have made critical investments in addressing the systemic challenges of the healthcare supply chain.
“These investments have had a profound impact on the availability of medicines and vaccines, enabling patients to reliably access the care they need,” he said.
Ghana’s Minister of Health, Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, said the government’s investment in healthcare delivery was part of its larger mission to build a stronger, more agile health system that better serves the people of Ghana.
“Over the past few years, we’ve made huge strides toward getting people the care they need, when and where they need it.
And when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we were prepared to rapidly and equitably deliver vaccines to Ghanaians everywhere,” he said.
Agyeman-Manu said that the Government of Ghana and Zipline began working together in 2019.
According to him, currently, Zipline operates at a national scale, serving over 15 million people from six distribution centres, with two more expected to launch later this year.
“The service has expanded rapidly in Ghana to meet demand, scaling from serving 160 facilities in 2019 to nearly 2,300 today.
“In that time, Zipline Ghana has flown 13 million miles and delivered more than five million doses of vaccines, in addition to blood products and other essential medicines.
“Our partnership with Zipline has played a vital role in Ghana’s robust administration of COVID-19 vaccines to combat the pandemic and foster healthier communities,” he said.
“Through Zipline’s automated, on-demand delivery service and other efforts by the government, we’ve been able to rapidly and equitably distribute vaccines to many parts of the country,” said the Director-General of Ghana Health Service, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye.
Dr Valentina Brailovskaya, the Principal Investigator from insight, one of the partners which is a data analytics, and research organization, said that
robust evidence gives companies like Zipline fuller visibility into how its service is used and whether desired outcomes are reached.
“We encourage Zipline and the Ghana Ministry of Health to keep the momentum of evidence generation and think critically about how to further improve medical supply chains and, ultimately, patient care.”
