Drone Delivery during Coronavirus: How Drones Can Help Fight the Coronavirus

The impact of COVID-19 worldwide has been far much worse than we anticipated. This pandemic has led to economic recession in nations, affected health sectors, and disrupted our normal way of life. Even worse, victims have lost lives and many others are hospitalized. However, it has also put technologies to a test and we’ve seem ideas like drone delivery during coronavirus grow bigger. Every sector is tapping into anyidea that will help people continue with their normal lives without contracting the virus. The public health sector introduced "social distancing" as one of the ways to reduce the spread of the virus. This means keeping at least 1 meter from one another. A similar measure to this was the closing of all public and social places including schools and places of worship to stop the spread of the virus. Drone companies have stepped up to offer services that will minimize contact between people. Customers can make orders online and receive items via drones. Drone delivery during coronavirus stands out compared to other delivery methods for its safeness as far as curbing the virus spread is concerned. The use of machines will minimize movement and contact lowering the risks of COVID 19 transmission. We’ve seen several drone or Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) pilot programs across the United States and some limited commercial deployments for services such as medical delivery, parcel delivery, utility inspection, and crop spraying. These programs have proven drone deliveryis a technically workable process, and some of them are tested business models predicted to succeed in the near future. A crisis like the current pandemic motivates many to come up with other reliable ways to ensure that businesses and essential services flow as normal. Embracing these technological innovations play a vital role in minimizing the spread of coronavirus ensuring the safety of products as well as the health of the public.

A Case in Point: Drone Delivery in China

China is a world-known tech leader and the perfect example of a country using drones delivery during coronavirus. Here are three ways drone delivery in China stood outamid a pandemic.

1.Aerial spray and disinfection.
Drones built to spray pesticides on agricultural farms and produce served as spray disinfectant chemicals in some towns in China. This procedure was applied even to vehicles traveling between highly-affected areas. The chemicals sprayed contain more than 60% of alcohol which kills germs and many viruses. Coronavirus is mainly transmitted through respiratory droplets and can be spread by touching contaminated surfaces. Sterilizing sprays help kill viruses reducing their spread. Drone spray has numerous advantages in terms of efficiency and consistency. Depending on the application, drone spray can be fifty times more efficient than manual work by humans. To ensure the safety of aerial disinfection operations, relevant agencies joined hands to publish an operational guidance. This also included technical specifications to communicate with the local authorities and make sure that all efforts were conducted safely and scientifically.

2.Transport of samples.
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected many sectors. The health sector has taken much of the beating despitebeing the forefront of battling the virus. Medical supplies, testing kits, and protective gears must be transported to various hospitals with maximum safety to prevent contamination. This can only be best achieved by drone delivery during coronavirus. This will minimize the contact of these samples with people reducing the risk of contamination. The use of drone deliveryin sample transportation speeds up feedback for critical tests needed by patients and medical staff. Medical sample drone delivery in China has been in testing for some time. A drone was loaded with medical supplies and took off from the People’s Hospital Xinchang County, Zhejiang Province. This drone flew to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention located 3 km away. Normally, this would have taken 20 minutes by road transport. The drone took only 6 minutes to reach the expected location. Thereby reducing the time of delivery by more than half. However, this effort required a lot of cooperation between agencies to make sure that everything runs smoothly without breaching citizens' rights. Drone delivery during coronavirus can help reduce secondary transmission. Medical samples delivered through air reduces the delivery time and save resources.

3.Consumer drone delivery.
Drones have helped supply foodstuffs and other goods to citizens across China. This saves on transportation costs and limits human contact hence reducing the risk of coronavirus. This is another plus for drone delivery during coronavirus is it has struggled to restore normalcy amid chaos.

Drone Tech is Superfast, but Regulation-makers are Sluggish.

UAV technology is ready for use around the globe. The main obstacles are the regulations and processes taken to ensure that everything runs smoothly after the green light flashes. The entire globe is embracing drone delivery during coronavirus. Some African nations have invited US drone companies to help their rural hospitals. Ghana and Rwanda are beneficiaries since they have been receiving medical supplies through drones. Using drones to deliver productsis said to reduce delivery time by over 50%. Compared to road transport, this processis human-free and reduces the risks of more infections. Drones also brought COVID-19 testing samples to laboratories which helped quick diagnosis and quarantining of the infected citizens. More importantly, drones were used to safely transport medical supplies to hospitals where infected patients were being treated. If all this was to be done byhuman carriers,who knows how many would have contracted the infection and further passed in on to others. The drone delivery challenge in the United States is not primarily technology, the matter is institutional. Regulatory bodies have failed to agree on a set of rules and give go-ahead to a ready industry.

Federal Permission for State to Create Drone Highways.

This will act as a solution to the dilemma around rules and regulations. Drone delivery during the coronavirus should be at the top of every state. State and city authorities should mark and lease the airspace above public roads to create drone highways. With the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and White House’s permission, maybe through a statement of policy that settles some of the obscurity in federal law, state authorities could begin allowing medical and parcel deliveries almost immediately. This is because many states authorize state or local officials to lease airspace above roads. States could put out a request for proposals and permit a drone service provider to do deliveries on certain routes above city streets and highways and avoid sensitive areas like airports and schools. Allowing states to act on these is useful in achieving a few things, such as.
a) Respects private property Drone delivery during coronavirus and any other time must happen above public routs. Drones shouldn’t fly above homes and private land.
b) Opens up valuable airspace to innovators American drone companies face tough challenges. Regulations restrict access to airspaces.This hinders the success of drones in delivery during coronavirus. If such measures are eased, a lot of drone activities would take place and of course, the benefits would be visible to everyone. It is also a measure to help contain the spread of the virus.
c) Encourages medical innovation and improves supply logistics Medical drone delivery networks are gaining ground in places like China, Rwanda, and Switzerland. The United States has the companies and talent to race ahead and improve medical and parcel deliveries in hard-to-reach places.

Social Benefits of Drone Delivery.

Unmanned aerial vehicles are useful for the medical, parcel, and grocery deliveries. Drone delivery during coronavirus minimizes the contact of people thus making this method effective. They also help increase social distancing thus reducing the spread of COVID-19. Because of flying UAVs,the number of carriers care may reduce, reducing traffic congestion on roads. Delivery Drones assist in moving items to rural areas where grocery stores and other essential services are not restocked as quickly. Also, drones can do home deliveries, this makes it easier for people to keep social distance since there will be no crowding and waiting in a particular location for such products. Lastly, drone delivery during the coronavirus focuseson reducing contact of people in public places and this also reduces the risks of theft, robbery, and even the transmission of the virus. In conclusion, Drone delivery has made it easier for products to find their way to consumers with minimal human contact. Perhaps it’s time we sped up the regulation establishment process and give unmanned aerial vehicles permission to hit the airways. The responsible bodies should be reluctant given the drone’s importance in controlling a crisis. After all, what’s the worst that could happen? Various pilot tests have proven that drones are well capable.