Tractor trailers loaded with suitcase-sized containers of COVID-19 vaccine will leave Pfizer Inc’s manufacturing facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on Sunday morning — launching the largest and most complex vaccine distribution project in the United States, where the virus is raging.
US regulators late on Friday authorized the vaccine from Pfizer and partner BioNTech for use, and US marshals will accompany the tightly secured shipments from factory to final destination.
“We have spent months strategizing with Operation Warp Speed officials and our health care customers on efficient vaccine logistics, and the time has arrived to put the plan into action,” Wes Wheeler, president of UPS Healthcare, said on Saturday.
Pfizer’s dry-ice cooled packages can hold as many as 4,875 doses, and the first leg of their journey will be from Kalamazoo to planes positioned nearby. Workers will load the vaccine — which must be kept at sub-Arctic temperatures — onto the aircraft that will shuttle them to United Parcel Service or FedEx air cargo hubs in Louisville, Kentucky, and Memphis, Tennessee, respectively.
From there, they will be trucked or flown to facilities close to the 145 US sites earmarked to receive the first doses.
Familiar UPS and FedEx package delivery drivers, who may also be carrying holiday gifts and other parcels, will deliver many of the “suitcases” into the hands of health care providers on Monday. The shipments are the first of three expected this week.
Healthcare workers and elderly residents of long-term care homes are first in line to receive the inoculations.
Pfizer’s inoculations have the most restrictive requirements for shipping and storage temperature, minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94°F).
UPS and FedEx are giving the vaccine top priority, reserving space on planes and trucks at a time when pandemic- and holiday- related e-commerce are creating more demand for deliveries than carriers can handle.
Both companies have expertise handling fragile medical products and are leaving little room for error. They are providing temperature and location tracking to backup devices embedded in the Pfizer boxes, and tracking each shipment throughout its journey.
Historic US COVID-19 vaccine campaign launches with convoy of trucks
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Historic US COVID-19 vaccine campaign launches with convoy of trucks
- US regulators late on Friday authorized the vaccine from Pfizer and partner BioNTech for use
- US marshals will accompany the tightly secured shipments from factory to final destination
Ukraine’s Zelensky says allies to provide new energy and military aid within 10 days
- Kyiv is aiming to rally support among partners as it struggles to fend off Russian battlefield advances and air attacks
KYIV: Ukraine has agreed new energy and military support packages with European allies ahead of the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion on February 24, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday.
Kyiv is aiming to rally support among partners as it struggles to fend off Russian battlefield advances and air attacks on its energy system while under US pressure to negotiate peace.
“In Munich, we agreed with the leaders of the Berlin Format on specific packages of energy and military aid for Ukraine by February 24,” Zelensky wrote on X.
Zelensky said on Friday after a meeting of the so-called Berlin Format of about a dozen European leaders in Munich that he had hoped for new support, including air-defense missiles.
“I am grateful to our partners for their readiness to help, and we count on all deliveries arriving promptly,” he added.
Russian attacks on major cities such as Kyiv have battered Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, plunging millions of residents into power outages of varying periods in freezing cold weather.
Zelensky added that Russia had launched around 1,300 attack drones, 1,200 guided aerial bombs and dozens of ballistic missiles at Ukraine over the past week alone.
