Using drones to transport suspected COVID-19 samples; experiences from the second largest testing centre in Ghana, West Africa
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Date
2022
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Publisher
PLOS ONE
Abstract
The declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic on March 11 2020, by the World Health Organi sation
prompted the need for a sustained and a rapid international response. In a swift response, the
Government of Ghana, in partnership with Zipline company, launched the use of Unmanned Automated
Vehicles (UAV) to transport suspected samples from selected dis tricts to two foremost testing centres
in the country. Here, we present the experiences of employing this technology and its impact on the
transport time to the second largest testing centre, the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical
Medicine (KCCR) inKumasi, Ghana.
Methods
Swab samples collected from suspected COVID-19 patients were transported to the Zipline
office by health workers. Information on the samples were sent to laboratory personnel
Description
This article is published by Plos One and is also available at https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0277057
Keywords
Citation
Sylverken AA, Owusu M, Agbavor B, Kwarteng A, Ayisi-Boateng NK, Ofori P, et al. (2022) Using drones to transport suspected COVID-19 samples; experiences from the second largest testing centre in Ghana, West Africa. PLoS ONE 17(11): e0277057