"Using contactless drone delivery to transport Covid-19 test samples will allow the government to respond to the pandemic and help save lives more quickly," Zipline Chief Executive Keller Rinaudo said in a release.
As of April 15, the Ghana Health Service said it had tested 57,000 coronavirus samples.
Zipline, which already operates fleets of drones in Ghana and Rwanda to deliver blood, vaccines and other essential medical equipment to rural areas, is working with the Ministry of Health to enable the coronavirus sample flights.
The company said using drones would cut the delivery time for test samples from hours, with trucks needing to traverse rural roads to collect tests from multiple hospitals, to under an hour in some cases.
It said it expects to operate the service daily "for the duration of the Government's Covid-19 response efforts."
Reuters