Drone logistics company Swoop Aero has completed the initial phases of a pilot study delivering essential medicines into Mozambique hospitals.
Swoop Aero said it had expanded its African drone delivery networks during the pandemic to increase access to essential medical supplies and prepare for the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.
It estimated the medicines had benefited 100,000 patients in Mozambique.
So far Swoop Aero has set up medical drone delivery services in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Malawi and Mozambique.
It launched official services in the DRC in January 2021 where in the first three months of operations, more than 20,000 vaccine doses were delivered via hundreds of long-range flights.
The deliveries have allowed thousands of children to be vaccinated, Swoop Aero said.
The company began to launch operations in Mozambique in March 2020 and had a pilot project running by October 2020.
Among the medical supplies transported were drugs for fighting Covid-19 and tuberculosis, which it estimated helped 100,000 patients.
The company said it had now successfully completed phase one of its Mozambique pilot study, when it assessed the safety, feasibility and community acceptance of medical drone deliveries.
Eric Peck, Swoop Aero CEO, said: “This is a major step towards drone integration into the national health system and we look forward to working with local communities to roll out our networks across Mozambique.”
Swoop Aero has been operating in Malawi since late 2019, where it said its deliveries had allowed the movement of essential supplies throughout the annual flood season when roads become congested or unusable.
The company said it had delivered over 1,200kg of essential supplies and made 67 life-saving emergency deliveries to date in Malawi.
Peck added: “When the pandemic unfolded in March 2020, we tripled our fleet of aircraft in Malawi and increased our locally hired workforce to manage and pilot the network, delivering Covid-19 testing kits, face masks and PPE.”
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