Kaduna State has taken a major revolutionary step towards reversing the losses to COVID-19, which has cost the state 57 lives, as at Saturday, February 6. According to statistics from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), 7804 persons have been infected with the virus in the state.
While 7467 persons were treated and discharged, 280 cases are on admission. But the state government has signed a first-of-its kind innovative Memorandum of Understanding with a private medical to deploy Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), better known as drone technology to deliver vaccines and other medical supplies to areas that may be difficult to penetrate due to challenging topography and bad roads.
This method of procurement and distribution of vaccines and medications is a novelty in Nigeria pioneered by the Kaduna State government. Other states are reportedly negotiating with the company to enter a similar working relationship. The clamour for the company’s services is influenced by the success rate of the medical delivery firm, Zipline, which has the distinction of having delivered more than one million doses of other vaccines in Africa over the past year.
The novel delivery of vaccines and other drugs in Kaduna is planned to start in the second quarter with 30 drones working full time from three distribution centres.
To accomplish this goal, El-Rufai said the state government has upgraded 255 primary health centres, installed a pharmagrade warehouse and is recruiting and training 3,000 officers to manage the facilities.
The working relationship between the Kaduna State Government and  Zipline that will help the state to overcome the challenge of cold-chain storage, while allowing drone shipment of COVID-19 vaccines.
According to Governor Nasir el-Rufai, “It will help ensure that millions of people in Kaduna State will always get the care they need.” The Governor said the deployment of drone technology will ensure that medical consumables will be delivered to many parts of the state facing security challenges and a bad road network.
In December 2020, the Kaduna State Governor went into self-isolation after testing positive for COVID-19. As a survivor of the deadly disease his willingness to deploy drone technology in the fight against COVID-19 ahead of other states and the Federal Government is a clear demonstration of empathy with victims and the love for his people.
The collaboration between Kaduna and Zepline follows a similar partnership with the World Health Organisation (WHO) Nigeria which last year supported the screening of 2306 persons for COVID-19 and 2506 persons for Tuberculosis (TB), using Chest X-Ray, and GeneXpert machine through mobile testing in Kaduna State communities. Kaduna State is reportedly faced with over 50 per cent reduction in hospital attendance and access to services due to disruption of routine essential services and programmes resulting from prioritisation of COVID-19 response.
In renewed efforts to tackle COVID-19 alongside TB in Nigeria, WHO Nigeria in collaboration with the Kaduna State Government and KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation, co-facilitated implementation of an integrated community testing for the two disease conditions using a mobile itinerant TB diagnostic facility called “Wellness On Wheels” Truck (WOW Truck).
This year, the population of Kaduna State is estimated at 1,133,000, occupying a land area of 46,053 km². The state is ranked 4th by land area and 3rd by population in Nigeria. Sixty-six percent of the state’s 2021 budget of N246 billion christened ‘Budget of Renewal’ “devoted to capital expenditure to support the government’s commitments to education, health, infrastructure and agricultural development while 34 percent is devoted to recurrent expenditure.” Governor El-Rufai said 2021 would be “used to fully to deliver on the government’s campaign promises to the electorate, having lost the greater part of 2020 to the coronavirus pandemic and other civil unrest that bedevilled the entire country.”
A few years ago, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) Office of Innovations realising that the need to deliver life-saving materials in both humanitarian and development contexts can face a range of challenges started to use drone technology to address transport,  connectivity and better emergency preparedness in some African and Asian countries.