For the first time in South Asia, a drone was used to transport Covid-19 vaccines from Bishnupur District Hospital to Manipur’s “floating islands” Loktak Lake on Monday.
The fully “Made in India” drone flew from the hospital in an automatic mode and reached the Karang Health Centre, nearly 26 km away, in just 12-15 minutes. By road, this journey is almost four hours long.
“This is for the first time that a ‘Made in India’ drone has been used in South Asia to transport Covid vaccine over an aerial distance of 15 km in 12-15 minutes from the Bishnupur district hospital to Loktak lake, Karang island in Manipur for administration at the primary health centre. The actual road distance between these locations is 26 km. Today, 10 beneficiaries will receive the first dose and 8 will receive the second dose at the PHC,” Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Monday said, while launching the ICMR’s drone response and outreach (called i-Drone) for the Northeast region.
This is the first step towards delivery of Covid-19 vaccine in the remote corners of the country using drones.
The delivery model is aimed at ensuring that life-saving vaccines reach everyone. Drones have been very useful in providing last mile deliveries in difficult terrains.
“India is home to geographical diversities and drones can be used to deliver essentials to the last mile. We can use drones in delivering important life-saving medicines, collecting blood samples. This technology can also be used in critical situations. It may prove a game changer in addressing the challenges in health care delivery, particularly health supplies, in difficult areas.”
This i-Drone has been designed to overcome these challenges by deploying Unmanned Aerial vehicles (UAV)/drones to remote areas and hard to reach terrains. Currently, the drone-based delivery project has been granted permission for implementation in Manipur and Nagaland, as well as Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The ICMR conducted an initial study in collaboration with the IIT Kanpur to test the capacity of the drones to carry and transfer vaccines safely.
In a related trial, drone delivery start up Skye Air -- part of a consortium for the Telangana Government’s “Medicines from the Sky” project -- has successfully completed 175 deliveries in a short span of 21 days.
Launched by Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on September 11 from Vikarabad, the project is an initiative of the Telangana Government in partnership with the World Economic Forum, Niti Aayog and HealthNet Global of Apollo Hospitals.
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) granted conditional exemption to ICMR for conducting feasibility study of Covid-19 vaccine delivery using drones.
The ICMR has partnered with IIT-Kanpur for the project. The Centre said the exemption will be valid for a period of one year or until further orders. Last month, Telangana launched Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLoS) flights to deliver a payload comprising vaccines.
Launching the initiative which would facilitate vaccine delivery to tough and hard-to-reach terrains, the Health Minister said incorporating such technologies into the national programmes would help deliver other vaccines and medical supplies too as quickly as possible.
