Emirates distributes more than 20 million vaccines globally

Abu Dhabi's Hope Consortium has distributed more than 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to 26 countries since it was formed late last year, officials announced Thursday. The consortium launched in November 2020 is working towards the goal of delivering 18 billion vaccines worldwide by the end of next year. "Abu Dhabi's ports have developed one of the best warehouses for vaccines. Not only do we ship them to airports around the world, but we also coordinate with governments to transport the vaccines to the hospitals or centres from where they will be administered," said Captain Mohamed Juma al-Shamsi, executive director of the Abu Dhabi Ports Group and chairman of the Hope Consortium Operations Steering Committee. 

In a media interview on the occasion of the Global Immunisation and Logistics Summit, Al-Shamsi shared how UAE Capital provides the world's efficient end-to-end supply chain solution. "Abu Dhabi not only has a strategic geographic location that positively serves the logistics aspect of any pandemic, but also offers a combination of infrastructure, technology, capabilities and partnerships," he said. 

Amid a surge in demand for vaccine logistics, the Hope Consortium represents a comprehensive solution to address vaccine transportation, demand planning, procurement, training and digital technology infrastructure. It comprises leading entities such as the Abu Dhabi Department of Health; Etihad Cargo; Abu Dhabi Ports Group; Rafed, the Abu Dhabi-based healthcare procurement arm; and Switzerland-based SkyCell, which develops temperature-controlled logistics containers for the pharmaceutical industry. 

Al-Shamsi stressed that the first year of the pandemic has demonstrated the importance of forging partnerships to mobilise global resources in the fight against COVID-19. "The pandemic has shown how we can successfully come together to save lives, and in response, we launched the Hope Consortium. The entity has provided logistics services to handle more than 6 billion doses of vaccines, either single or multiple doses, by 2021. This figure will more than triple by the end of next year.