Zipline and Kisumu County Seal Partnership

Zipline and Kisumu County, a Member of the Lake Region Economic Bloc, Seal Partnership to Accelerate Universal Health Coverage Across the County. 

Partnership, dubbed, Kisumu Universal Health Acceleration Project, aims at removing barriers to access to COVID-19 vaccines and other medical commodities within the county 

Kisumu – Kenya, February 16th, 2022, The global leader in instant logistics, Zipline, and Kisumu County, a member of the Lake Region Economic Bloc (LREB) have, today, executed an agreement that will leverage Zipline’s industry-leading warehousing facility and autonomous aircraft technology for the storage and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines, blood products and other medical commodities to health facilities within the Kisumu County.

The agreement specifies the establishment and operation of a Zipline distribution hub in Kisumu County that will act as the base of operations for the Zipline uncrewed aerial system (UAS) and the Zipline services capable of serving health projects and facilities across 16 counties in western Kenya.

The Governor of Kisumu County,  H.E. Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o, said, “We have made some significant efforts in improving the overall healthcare delivery of our people. It is heartwarming to note, therefore, that our mission of achieving universal health coverage is on course with this historic partnership which will ensure that no one is left behind as a result of their location”. 

Commenting on the partnership, the Chairman of LREB and County Governor of Kakamega said, “it is our commitment as LREB to deliver an aggressive agenda of building a robust health delivery system that will not only serve a few but the vast majority of people within LREB Counties. Zipline’s technology is one we can resort to in accelerating the transformation of our health systems to provide timely healthcare solutions to the people on whose mandate we serve”.

On his part, the CEC of Health, Dr. Gregory Ganda said, “I am happy to note that this is one step towards reducing operational inefficiencies that inhibit access to universal healthcare in our country and region”.

​​“We’ve seen how automated, on-demand delivery can transform healthcare systems to make them more efficient, effective and equitable,” said Keller Rinaudo, co-founder and CEO of Zipline. “Zipline’s expansion into Kenya, our seventh country, in partnership with Kisumu County, is a pivotal step forward to expand these important benefits to more communities around the world.” 

The Senior Vice President for Zipline Africa, Mr. Daniel Marfo, also assured that Zipline will expedite the distribution hub construction process to ensure that access to healthcare for life-threatening illnesses and vaccines is achieved rapidly. “This Zipline and Kisumu County partnership is a powerful collaboration that will solidify transformational logistics medical delivery in Western Kenya and put Kenya on the forefront of health excellence”, he said.

Following the start of Zipline’s UAS delivery operations from its distribution hub in Kisumu County, the parties will collaborate in a project operations phase, in accordance with standard operating procedure and terms of service with the objective of providing medical commodities including COVID-19 vaccines doses to health facilities within the operational area.

Zipline’s footprint in Africa has seen it establish business partnerships in Rwanda, Ghana, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire and now Kenya where it seeks to carry an industrious technology-driven transformation in the health sectors. 

About the New Service

The revolutionary new instant logistics service is part of the Government of Kisumu County’s bold vision of using drone delivery to establish universal, seven-days-a-week access to lifesaving and critical medicines for most of its citizens over the coming years. Zipline drones will be capable of making on-demand and emergency deliveries of blood products, COVID-19 vaccines, and other life-saving medications.  

The Government of Kisumu County’s vision is for Zipline to establish one distribution center, which is capable of covering most parts of the county. The government’s goal is to put almost all of its citizens within minutes of a lifesaving medical delivery by drone.

THE PROBLEM

Throughout the world, access to life-saving and critical health products for billions of people is hampered by the last-mile problem: the inability to deliver needed medicines and vaccines due to lack of adequate transportation, communication, or supply chain infrastructure. Too often this results in unequal access to healthcare and healthcare outcomes, avoidable stockouts, and costly product waste across healthcare systems. 

A NEW SOLUTION

To increase access and reduce medical waste, key stock of blood products, vaccines and life-saving medications will be stored at Zipline’s distribution centers for just-in-time delivery. Health workers will place orders by text message or call and promptly receive their deliveries exactly when and where they need them in 30 minutes on average. 

The drones both take off from and land at Zipline’s distribution hub, requiring no additional infrastructure or manpower at the clinics they serve. The drones fly autonomously and can carry 1.8 kilos of cargo, cruising at 110 kilometers an hour, and have a round trip range of 160 kilometers – even in high speed winds and rain. 

Deliveries are made from the sky, with the drone descending to a safe height above the ground and releasing a box of medicine by parachute to a designated spot at the health centers it serves. 

HOW ZIPLINE WORKS

Each week, a single Zipline distribution center – a combination of medical fulfillment warehouse and drone airport – is capable of the micro-targeted delivery of more than two tons of temperature-controlled medicine to any point across an almost 20,000 square km service area. 

Each aircraft can fly 160 km round trip, in strong winds and rain, day or night, to make on-demand deliveries in 30 minutes on average. Zipline’s drones have flown  18 million autonomous miles to deliver millions of doses of vaccines, units of blood, and critical and life saving medications to thousands of health facilities serving more than 25 million people across three countries. 

ABOUT ZIPLINE 

Zipline was founded to create the first logistics system that serves all humans equally.   Our aim is to solve the world’s most urgent and complex access challenges. Leveraging expertise in robotics and autonomy, Zipline designs, manufactures and operates the world’s largest automated delivery system. We serve tens of millions of people around the world and are making good on the promise of building an equitable and more resilient global supply chain.  

From powering Rwanda’s national blood delivery network and Ghana’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution, to providing on-demand home delivery for Walmart and enabling leading healthcare providers to bring care into the home in the United States, Zipline is transforming the way goods move. By transitioning to clean, electric, instant logistics, we can decarbonize delivery, decrease road congestion, and reduce fossil fuel consumption and air pollution, while providing equitable access for billions of people. The technology is complex but the idea is simple: a teleportation service that delivers what you need, when you need it.  Zipline is inspiring people, governments, and businesses to imagine what is possible when goods can move as seamlessly as information.