For the first time in the country, a made-in-India drone delivered 900 vaccine doses across a distance of 31 kms in Manipur. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has launched an initiative to facilitate COVID-19 vaccine delivery to tough and hard-to-reach terrains of the Northeast through drones.

“India’s vaccination drive besides being world’s #LargestVaccineDrive & #FastestVaccineDrive is also now #iDrone Driven. #MakeInIndia drone delivered 900 vaccine doses across a distance of 31 kms in #Manipur inoculating 10 people against #COVID19 today," G Kishan Reddy tweeted.

G Kishan Reddy is Union Minister For Culture, Tourism And Development Of North Eastern Region.

The ICMR’s Drone Response and Outreach in North East (i-Drone), a delivery model to make sure that life-saving COVID vaccines reach everyone, is in line with the government’s commitment to ‘Antyodaya’ in health - making healthcare accessible to the last citizen of the country, officials said.

Launching the initiative which would facilitate vaccine delivery to hard-to-reach terrains of India, the Union Health Minister said, “Our immunisation programme for COVID-19 has already exceeded all expectations."

Despite the effective and safe vaccine administration in the states and Union Territories, the vaccine delivery in tough and hard-to-reach terrains of India is still challenging.

The i-Drone has been designed to overcome these challenges by deploying Unmanned Aerial vehicles (UAV) / drones to remote areas, the health ministry said.

Currently, the drone-based delivery project has been granted permission for implementation in Manipur and Nagaland, as well as the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Meanwhile, 91.54 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far under nationwide vaccination drive