The Government of Cross River, in collaboration with Zipline company, delivered over 600,000 drugs and vaccines to remote communities in the last eight months using drone technology.
The Commissioner for Health, Mr Henry Ayuk, made this known during an on-the-spot assessment of Zipline company’s facilities in Ogoja on Monday.
Zipline is a logistics company that provides cold chain storage of drugs and vaccines and drone services to health facilities in hard-to-reach communities.
The company, which started operations with its first drone delivery in Cross River on Feb. 15, is also in Kaduna and Bayelsa, an innovation to bridge healthcare needs of hard-to-reach communities.
The commissioner said “this is a wonderful scientific innovation that should be encouraged in many other areas; for a state like Cross River with many hard-to-reach areas, we have seen how the drone works to transport drugs and vaccines.
“We have also seen the safe environment from where the drugs are warehoused and the drones are deployed.
there is no other method that can be used to address distribution to the last man in a state like ours.
“We will continue to review our activities with Zipline but the ultimate is that this is good, it is a global practice that has been tried in other terrains and it worked.”
Ayuk said the state government was also consolidating a plan to ensure another Zipline facility in Akampa Local Government Area that would service the Southern Senatorial District of the state.
He added that the southern part has many health facilities in coastal areas and in need of effective drugs and vaccines supply method.
Mr Norbert Ogar, the Community Leader of Zipline, said the company had been trying to ensure easy access to essential medicines
and vaccines, using innovative technology.
Ogar said there are communities in Cross River that would take you hours or the whole day to access but with drones, 15 to 30 minutes
is all that is required to access and drugs and vaccines delivered.
He added that “we commenced operations in February and so far, we have moved close to 300,000 units of essential medicines to
hard-to-reach communities and about 400,000 vaccines to communities both for immunization and COVID-19.
“The impact of our quick delivery to remote communities has paid off because people now have access to routine vaccines and drugs
quickly due to our services.
“This has had a triple effect on saving lives, especially as it concerns maternal and child care in rural and remote communities.”
