India turns to drones for Covid-19 vaccine deliveries

Throttle Aerospace Systems’ MedCOPTER drones can carry 1kg for up to 15km, and 2kg for up to 12km, respectively.

CAPE TOWN, June 24 (ANA) – Indian aviation firm Throttle Aerospace Systems (TAS) has led the way for testing long-range Covid-19 vaccine drone deliveries after launching the programme last week.

According to the Times of India, the firm received approval for object delivery experiments from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in March. However, the recent deadly outbreak in April and May led to delays for other permissions and clearances in order to get lift-off.

TAS will use two types of its MedCOPTER drone, which run on TAS’s on-demand delivery software called RANDINT.

“Two other consortia also have permissions for experiments, but ours is the first official medical drone delivery experiment,” said Nagendran Kandasamy, CEO of TAS.

“The smaller variant of MedCOPTER can carry 1kg for up to 15km, while the other can carry 2kg for up to 12km,” he said.

Kandasamy added that the testing will be conducted over a 30- to 45-day period. They are aiming to fly at least 125 hours before submitting their assessments to officials.

South China Morning Post reported that the firm secured permits to fly the drones above the current legal height limit of 450m in their bid to reach remote areas.

Local epidemiologists say the drones will get vaccine shots to priority groups in hard-to-reach areas.

Meanwhile, India kicked off its centralised free vaccination programme on Monday, through which the government will provide free Covid-19 shots for citizens over the age of 18.

India has been one of the nations hardest hit by the pandemic while facing vaccine shortages during the outbreak of the second wave.

As of June 23, India has recorded 30,028,709 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 390,660 related deaths.

– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher