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Zambia plans drones delivering medicines to rural areas

Xinhua, January 18, 2017 Adjust font size:

The Zambian government said on Tuesday that plans were underway to introduce the use of drones to deliver medicines to remote parts of the country.

Minister of Health Chitalu Chilufya said the government was currently exploring ways of introducing drone technology to speed up the delivery of essential medicines and kits to rural areas.

Zambia, he said, wanted to join other African countries such as Tanzania and Rwanda that have already adopted the use of drone technology in drug supply, according to state-run news agency, the Zambia News and Information Service (ZANIS).

The program will be supported by the National Center for Global Health and Medicine of Japan which will launch a program of using state-of-the art drones manufactured in Japan to deliver medical supplies to rural Zambia.

Test flights are scheduled to be carried out in April this year while fully-fledged operations are expected to commence before the end of this year. Endit