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SINGAPORE (Reuters) – When the door of the vaccine cart is opened at Singapore’s Changi Airport, freezing temperatures inside collide with the warm, tropical air, creating a carpet of steam like hot breath in a day. of winter.
These cars known as cold cars, recently acquired by logistics company dnata, are part of a government-led plan to take advantage of the city-state’s position as an air cargo hub and ensure that COVID-19 vaccines can be distribute throughout the region.
The city-state of 5.7 million people has said it expects the first injections of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine to reach the Southeast Asian transportation hub this month after Singapore became the first country to Asia to approve the vaccine.
But beyond its own needs, Singapore has been beefing up its so-called “cold chain” capabilities in recent months to ensure that vaccines like Pfizer’s, which must be stored in extreme cold, can be transported without problems.
“The temperature in Singapore could reach 30 degrees (Celsius) or more. The moving platforms really help us protect the product,” said Arman Abdul Malek, an operations executive at dnata, when demonstrating the cars he said were bought ago some weeks.
Typically, in the “cold chain” process, vaccines arrive on airplanes in deep-frozen storage boxes. They are then unloaded onto temperature-controlled cold storage platforms and transported across the runway to cavernous cold rooms at the various airport storage facilities before further distribution.
Pfizer’s vaccine, which is currently being administered in Britain and the United States, must be stored at minus 70 degrees Celsius (-94 F) or below, which is equivalent to an Antarctic winter.
Another Moderna vaccine, which is about to be licensed in the United States, can be stored for up to six months at minus 20 degrees Celsius.
Singapore’s ground services company SATS said it is also investing in its capacity to handle these vaccines, including purchasing cold carts and expanding its dry ice production.
“Singapore is well positioned to be a regional hub for storing and redistributing vaccines throughout Asia,” said Bob Chi, COO, Gateway Services, at SATS.
(Reporting by Chen Lin and John Geddie; edited by Lincoln Feast.)
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