The government of Tanzania has signed an agreement with Zipline Company in a project to deliver medical supplies through using drones, the citizen reports.
Over 1000 health facilities in ten regions are expected to benefit from the project.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday in Dar es Salaam, the country’s Medical Stores Department Executive Director, Laurean Mwanakunu said that the drones will help deliver blood products, vaccines and medical supplies in areas that are remote and hard to reach.
Mwanakunu further said that they will begin the trial in two regions, which is Dodoma and Mwanza.
“If we get positive results, thjis will give us courage to scale up the services across the country.” The report quotes Mwanakunu say.
According to the report, the project is expected to fully kick in 2018.
Zipline has previously deployed 15 drones serving 21 clinics from a single base in Rwanda. The delivery operation planned for Tanzania would be the world’s largest —120 drones at four bases serving more than 10 million people at 1,000 clinics across the country.
