Partnership vital to fill distribution gaps

As calls grow for reducing the global divide in COVID-19 vaccine allocations, the United Arab Emirates will play a crucial role in distribution of coronavirus jabs, thanks to the nation's health cooperation with China, experts said.

Ben Hanson, chief executive of health consultancy Rivers International Management Services, said the partnership of China and the UAE to mass produce millions of COVID-19 vaccines and distribute them rapidly throughout the developing world is "a critical step forward in the fight against the pandemic".

China and its partners have enough manufacturing capacity to do this successfully at scale, said Hanson, who is based in Dubai.

Emirates SkyCargo, which is part of the vaccine logistics alliance, said it has so far transported over 220 tons of six kinds of COVID-19 vaccines, equivalent to more than 50 million doses, on more than 150 flights.

The shipments covered destinations such as Brussels, India, Lebanon, Brazil, Morocco and the South African city of Johannesburg, to name a few.

Dennis Lister, vice-president for cargo commercial development at Emirates SkyCargo, said more than two-thirds of the jabs have gone to Africa, Latin America and Asia.

"As vaccine manufacturing scales up across the world, we expect to see even more requests for global transportation," said Lister.

He said they are yet to see COVID-19 vaccines being transported by sea, mainly because the production volumes "have not yet reached the scale where distribution by sea is a feasible option".

Storage infrastructure

"However, seaports could play a critical role in providing the cool chain infrastructure for storage of vaccines in locations where such infrastructure may otherwise not be available."

Collaboration between the two countries has come far since the UAE approved China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine in December.

Earlier this year, the need to ramp up a global inoculation drive led to the formation of the Dubai Vaccine Logistics Alliance, bolstering the UAE's position as a global logistics hub. By March, Sinopharm and Emirati technology firm G42 announced a deal to produce COVID-19 vaccines with an initial capacity of 2 million doses per month.

All these initiatives mean the UAE will play a vital part in the distribution of much-needed vaccines, particularly in developing countries.

Container terminal operator DP World, another member of the Dubai Vaccine Logistics Alliance, said they are working closely with the United Nations International Children's Fund in offering logistics support and expertise.

UNICEF has a target to distribute 2 billion doses by the end of 2021 as the lead delivery agency for COVAX, a collaboration led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness, vaccine alliance Gavi, and the World Health Organization to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines.

Pat Thaker, regional director for Middle East and Africa at The Economist Intelligence Unit, said that with production issues such as delays and vaccine hoarding by major economies, a targeted rollout of 2 billion doses to inoculate 20 percent of the world population by the end of 2021 looks ambitious.

Vaccine logistics "have proven to be more difficult in practice than on paper", she said. The issues include storage and temperature requirements, as well as surging costs.