Walmart Is Using Drones To Deliver COVID-19 Tests In Texas Hot Spot

Walmart is using drones to deliver COVID-19 tests in one of Texas' hardest hit cities.

El Paso is one of three cities where the big box store is testing pandemic-related drone delivery. The others are Cheektogawa, New York, and Las Vegas, Nevada.

Since drone delivery doesn't require person-to-person interaction, it's being seen as a safer way to get more people tested for the respiratory virus.

Not just anyone in a city with drone delivery can order a test though. First, people will have to answer a questionnaire to see if they're eligible to take a COVID-19 test, which is free through the drone program.

Drones are only being sent to single-family homes within a one-mile radius of a Walmart store offering deliveries. Tests will be delivered seven days a week, but from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. local time, depending on weather and visibility, according to getdronetest.com.

Deliveries are only dropped off at houses so the person taking the test will to use a prepaid envelope to send it back to Quest Diagnostics, the lab that's processing tests and sending out results.

"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. 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," Walmart said in a statement when it announced its Las Vegas test in September.

Photo: Getty Images