Drones Used in Maharashtra for Transportation of COVID-19 Vaccines in Remote Village in New Trial

A batch of 300 COVID-19 vaccines was transported from Jawhar to Zaap village.

By Press Trust of India | Updated: 18 December 2021 11:50 IST

Drones Used in Maharashtra for Transportation of COVID-19 Vaccines in Remote Village in New Trial

Photo Credit: Skye Air Mobility

Drone deliveries could help villages receive COVID-19 vaccine doses at doorstep (representational image)

Highlights

Maharashtra's Palghar has carried out drone delivery experiment
Drone covered the distance of around 20 kilometres
The task was completed in just over nine minutes

The district administration of Palghar in Maharashtra carried out an experiment, in which it used a drone to deliver COVID-19 vaccine doses in a remote village situated in a rugged terrain, its top official said.
The experiment, which was successfully carried out on Thursday, is probably the first of its kind in the state, district collector Dr. Manik Gursal, who coordinated in the trial, said.

"As part of the exercise, a batch of 300 vaccines was transported from Jawhar to Zaap village. The task, which would have otherwise taken more than 40 minutes, was completed in just a little over nine minutes. The vaccines were delivered at the local public health centre," the district administration said in a release issued on Friday.

The distance between the two points is around 20 kilometres, an official said.

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District health officer Dr. Dayanand Suryavanshi said this could become possible with the help of private entities that came forward to help.

"This will go a long way in the vaccination drive as the doses can now easily be sent to the doorsteps of those villagers, who find it difficult to reach the inoculation centres. To some extent, it will also help remove the misconceptions related to vaccination from the minds of people," he said.

How will India's new liberalised drone rules impact the industry? And where are they left wanting? We discussed this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

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