U.S. consumers may one day be able to acquire at-home Covid-19 test kits by air thanks to a new partnership between retail giant Walmart, clinical laboratory Quest Diagnostics and drone services provider DroneUp.
In a blog post, Walmart said it will begin trial deliveries of Covid-19 collection kits starting Sept. 22 in North Las Vegas, with Cheektowaga, N.Y., which is just outside Buffalo, to follow in early October.
Customers who quality for test kits by drone must live in single-family homes within a one-mile radius of designated Supercenters in those test areas. There is no cost for either the kit or delivery from Virginia Beach, Va.-based DroneUp.
Tom Ward, senior vice president of customer product at Walmart, said the kit will land on the driveway, sidewalk or backyard, depending where trees and cars are located. After delivery, customers will perform their own nose swabs and then send the samples to Quest Diagnostics for testing using a prepaid shipping label to be included with the order.
“There’s a lot we can learn from our drone delivery pilots to help determine what roles drones can play in pandemic response, health care delivery and retail,” Ward wrote. “We hope drone delivery of self-collection kits will shape contactless testing capabilities on a larger scale and continue to bolster the innovative ways Walmart plans to use drone delivery in the future.”
It’s been a big month for Walmart and drone delivery.
In early September, Walmart announced a partnership with Tel Aviv-based drone delivery