Drones will soon deliver coronavirus vaccines in rural areas

Draganfly photo

Coronavirus vaccination rates are lower in rural areas, partly because some don't want to get the shots, but also because some live in areas so remote that it's difficult to drive to vaccination sites. "Drone companies are positioning themselves to deliver refrigerated medical products to those people. If the plans don’t pan out in time to combat the coronavirus crisis, then they hope to be set up to assist swiftly in the world’s next big health scare," Dalvin Brown reports for The Washington Post.

One such company, Draganfly, will begin test flights in Texas next month in partnership with Texas-based health-care supply chain management company Coldchain Technology Services. Another drone company, Volansi, has been ferrying other refrigerated medicines and vaccines from Merck in North Carolina since October, Brown reports.

Why use drones? They tend to be faster and cheaper that trucks or helicopters to carry smaller payloads to remote locations, Coldchain executive director Wayne Williams told Brown. 

"Unmanned aerial vehicles are shaping up to assist during the pandemic in other ways, too," Brown reports. "Draganfly developed a system that can measure people’s vital signs such as heart rate and blood pressure from a drone. Drones from the Chinese manufacturer DJI have been used to monitor social distancing in Elizabeth, N.J., over the past year. Meanwhile, more than a few firms have announced disinfecting drones to spray potentially contaminated zones from above."