Scrambling to turn back the surge of COVID-19 infections and deaths sweeping the nation, India has broadened testing of drones in delivering vaccines and other medicines to Beyond the Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) destinations.
Drone-delivered vaccines to remote locations
The move comes a little over a week after Indian authorities cleared trial delivery flights in Telangana state. Groups of drone and tech industry companies, health experts, and government agencies participating in the last-mile testing were initially required to respect Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) limitations. Now those have been lifted amid the piking spread of COVID-19 across India.
The BVLOS waiver arrived earlier than anticipated, and reflect the unprecedented gravity of India’s current COVID-19 wave. On Monday alone, India added 366,161 new COVID-19 cases to its 22.6 million total. Reported deaths for the day were 3,754, lifting the total to 246,000.
Under the new directives, trial flights will be…
