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SINGAPORE: Singapore can play a pivotal role in delivering vaccines to the region as an air cargo hub, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and Changi Airport Group (CAG) said on Tuesday (December 8).
“Over the years, Changi Airport has built a strong track record in handling pharmaceuticals by air, from serving Singapore’s pharmaceutical manufacturing sector. We have a good infrastructure and cold chain management capabilities, ”said Mr. Ho Yuen Sang, CAAS Director of Aviation Industry.
“We can handle not only vaccine shipments to Singapore for our own needs, but also transshipments to Singapore for distribution to the rest of the region.”
A SATS Coolport staff member packs blocks of dry ice in temperature controlled ULDs as secondary packaging. (Photo: SATS)
Ho said SIA has more than 200 passenger jets to deploy and can deliver vaccines to “multiple destinations based on demand.”
Singapore may distribute vaccines to areas where the infrastructure to handle large volumes of vaccines is limited, which would require more frequent deliveries in smaller volumes, he added at a press conference at Changi airport on Tuesday.
On Saturday, Singapore Airlines (SIA) said it would prioritize cargo capacity to transport COVID-19 vaccines when they become available. The airline added that it would prepare seven Boeing 747-400 cargo planes and deploy passenger jets where necessary.
READ: Singapore Airlines will prioritize cargo capacity for COVID-19 vaccine transport
As of Dec. 1, the number of weekly cargo flights at Changi Airport has tripled to more than 950 compared to the end of 2019, and the airport is connected to about 80 cities by weekly cargo flights, CAAS said. and CAG.
SIA now operates several weekly flights to key European pharmaceutical export centers, such as Amsterdam, Brussels and Frankfurt.
A SATS Coolport staff member packs blocks of dry ice in temperature controlled ULDs as secondary packaging. (Photo: SATS)
STORAGE FROZEN, DEEP FROZEN
The airport authority noted that the airport’s cargo handlers dnata and SATS have been investing in cold chain infrastructure and equipment for years to support temperature-controlled cargo transportation.
Dnata’s CoolChain and SATS Coolport warehouses with adjustable temperature ranges from -25 degrees Celsius to 25 degrees Celsius cover more than 9,000 square meters.
“We have been preparing for this for more than seven years, we have been handling vaccines for a long time; these are not the first vaccines to hit the shores of Singapore, ”said Sam Gould, cargo manager for dnata Singapore.
“Probably the biggest struggle we’ve had is that there is going to be a much stronger demand.”
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Vaccines require transport in the cold chain, as some of them must be kept at specific temperatures. It ensures that vaccines will remain intact as they arrive from where they are made to where they will be administered – hospitals and clinics.
Britain on Tuesday became the first country to implement the Pfizer / BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, which must be kept at -70 degrees Celsius and lasts for only five days in a normal refrigerator.
Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine must be transported and stored at -20 degrees Celsius and has a shelf life of six months. The AstraZeneca vaccine can be stored between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius.
Mr. Gould explained at the press conference that Singapore can handle vaccines that need temperatures of -70 degrees, as they will come in special packaging that can help maintain that temperature.
Vaccines should only be kept at that temperature for long-term storage, not for transit.
“The inner packaging of these boxes will do that for us: the colder we keep it, the longer it will last,” he said.
Both dnata and SATS have also recently introduced dollies, temperature-controlled containers that are transported with temperature control on the runway, from the warehouse to the plane.
“The amount of time it takes once a vaccine is obtained from an aircraft to reach the correct temperature is now a matter of minutes,” said Mr. Gould.
View of the dnata mobile platform. (Photo: dnata)
View of the dnata mobile platform. (Photo: dnata)
Handling of vaccines that must be stored frozen or deep-frozen may require dry ice, which cargo handlers have facilities to produce and trained personnel to handle.
“In addition to purchasing electric cold dollies and expanding our in-house dry ice production capacity to 4.5 tons per day, we have increased our loading points to accommodate more active, temperature-controlled containers on site.
“SATS Coolport is also equipped with a 24-hour intelligent temperature monitoring system,” said Nazri Othman, senior vice president of charging services at SATS.
To prepare the industry for vaccine delivery, the Changi Ready Task Force was formed in October to identify and address the potential challenges of transporting COVID-19 vaccines by air. It is made up of 18 members from government agencies, airlines, cargo handlers and freight forwarders.
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Lim Ching Kiat, CAG’s managing director of air hub development, said that while cargo shipments do not generate large revenue for the airport, there are strategic and humanitarian reasons to prioritize COVID-19 vaccine shipments.
“Especially for vaccine distribution, there is a very clear humanitarian reason why we want this process to be as efficient as possible so that vaccines can be transported safely,” said Mr. Lim, Co-Chair of the Working Group on Changi Ready.
“COVID has also disrupted Changi Airport flights quite significantly, so the key to traffic recovery also comes in terms of widespread vaccine (distribution) … As an air hub community, we are ready to transport the air cargo of COVID-19 vaccines “.
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