Swoop Aero to restart Congo service for delivering medical supplies

July 27, 2020: Swoop Aero, the ministry of health in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and NGO partner VillageReach, are set to re-commence operations in the Equateur province. 

Swoop Aero in a blog published on its website said, "Our collective objective is to increase access to life-saving vaccines and other health products. The operations will involve the establishment of routine and emergency deliveries of healthcare commodities such as vaccines, other immunisation products, HIV and TB medicines, personal protective equipment, test kits and other supplies along with lab samples and test results. In addition, our drone operations will enable the delivery of health products directly to hard-to-reach (or remote) health facilities, streamlining the public health supply chain."

Supply chain failures cause millions to miss out on vaccines every year. To address this primary problem, Swoop Aero uses aeromedical drone logistics to ensure routine health supplies are distributed and supply chains remain uninterrupted.

Swoop Aero and VillageReach are committed to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 3, which defines good health and wellbeing, thus, working to provide the tools necessary to achieve universal access to healthcare.

As of June 1, Congo declared its eleventh Ebola outbreak, following the revelation of new cases of Ebola in Equateur province had claimed the lives of four people. Moreover, as of July 23, the country had reported 8,443 cases of coronavirus, including 194 deaths from the virus, however, as in every other country, limitations of testing apparatus the true scale of the Covid-19 pandemic is unknown. In addition, a large measles outbreak is continuing to spread.