(Reuters) – Tractor trailers filled with suitcase-sized containers of the COVID-19 vaccine will leave a manufacturing facility at Pfizer Inc.’s Kalamazoo in Michigan on Sunday morning – starting the largest and most complex vaccine distribution project in the United States, where the virus is present. Raging.
Late Friday, U.S. regulators authorized the use of the vaccine from Pfizer and partner Bioentech, and U.S. The marshals will go from the factory to the destination with a tight safe carry.
“We’ve spent months developing strategies with operational operation speed officers and our healthcare clients on efficient vaccine logistics, and it’s time to implement the plan,” Wes Wheeler, president of UPS Healthcare, said Saturday.
Pfizer’s dry-ice ice-cooled packages can contain up to 4,875 doses, and the first part of their journey will be from Kalamazoo to nearby planes. Workers will load the vaccine – which must be kept at sub-Arctic temperatures – on a plane that will take them to the United Parcel Service or FedEx Air Cargo Hub in Louisville, Kentucky and Memphis, Tennessee, respectively.
From there, they will be trucked or the 145 U.S. determined to receive the first dose. Will be delivered to facilities near sites.
Familiar UPS and FedEx package delivery drivers, who may also be carrying holiday gifts and other parcels, will deliver many “suitcases” into the hands of healthcare providers on Monday. The shipment is the first of three expected this week.
Healthcare workers and elderly residents of long-term care homes are in the first line to get enrollment.
Pfizer’s inoculations have the most restrictive requirements of shipping and storage temperature, minus 70 લ્સ C (minus 94 ફ F).
UPS and FedEx are giving top priority to vaccines, while saving epidemic- and holiday-related e-commerce carriers will save space on planes and trucks at a time when they are generating more demand than they can handle.
Both companies have the skills to handle delicate medical products and are leaving little room for error. They are providing temperature and location tracking to backup devices embedded in Pfizer boxes, and tracking each passenger throughout his or her journey.
Reported by Lisa Bertlin in Los Angeles; Edited by Dan Grebler
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