Under the Zipline arrangement, drones will deliver medications, blood, anti-snake venoms, malaria drugs and vaccines to about 500 health facilities in the Volta, Oti and Eastern regions within 30 minutes after orders are placed.

The inauguration ceremony, however, took place at Nyagbo-Sroe, a community 750 metres above sea level in the Afadzato South District in the Volta Region.

The durbar to inaugurate the centres was underlined by two swift drone deliveries which generated excitement among the crowd.

Later in the day, Dr Bawumia left Nyagbo-Sroe for the drone delivery station at Anum to cut a tape to signify the formal commencement of operations by the centre.

He said the drone initiative was a bold and giant step in the overall improvement of healthcare delivery in the country.

Largest drone service

Dr Bawumia said the country now had the largest drone delivery system in the world, and had created 300 jobs for Ghanaians.

“Furthermore, all the six drone delivery centres are manned by Ghanaians,” he said.

“The huge successes in the initiative have also proved the skeptics wrong,” he added.

Since the inception of the service in 2019, drones have delivered 1.7 million medical commodities to 2,300 health facilities in 47 districts in 13 regions.

The Vice-President urged communities to embrace the Zipline delivery service, saying the technology was designed principally to reach out to health facilities in remote areas in a very short time.

COVID-19

He noted that the speedy delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to various health facilities by drones had largely contributed to the significant decline in cases of the virus.

“As of last Sunday, there were only 79 cases of COVID-19 in the country,” he stated.

However, he pointed out that COVID-19 was still an unpleasant tale for the nation and, therefore, entreated all to continue to observe the safety protocols at all times.

Vice-President Bawumia pointed out that shaping the economy relied heavily on the health sector, as other sectors depended on investments in health.

For that matter, the government would continue to invest in the health delivery system and make quality care accessible to every part of the country, he maintained.

Turnaround time reduced

The General Manager of Zipline, Naa Adorkor Yawson, said the drone initiative, which took off in 2019, reduced patients’ waiting time at health facilities drastically just by the touch of a button.

She paid tribute to traditional rulers for their support for the initiative and said the prospect of drone deliveries was bright.

The Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman Manu, in a speech read on his behalf, gave an assurance that the ministry was firm in its stance to build a robust and resilient healthcare system to provide prompt and quality service to the public, adding that it was ready to work with all stakeholders to achieve that objective.

The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, said drone deliveries bridged the gap between rural and remote communities in terms of access to health care, and that underlined its importance in the overall health delivery system.

While implementing that initiative, he said, the GHS would continue to make reforms in other areas of health care.

The Chief of Nyagbo-Sroe, Ekusi Owusu IX, said drone deliveries were a great relief to people in rural communities who now received their medications without travelling to the urban centres.