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Dubai’s leading companies have formed an alliance to transport 2 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines worldwide this year.
Air carrier Emirates, port operator DP World and Dubai airports have joined up until accelerate the distribution of vaccines in Dubai, the Gulf trade and tourism center that now plans to become a vaccine center as well.
The move “will focus especially on emerging markets, where populations have been hit hard by the pandemic, and pharmaceutical transport and logistics are challenging,” according to the government media agency’s announcement.
International Humanitarian City, an emergency response center based in Dubai, has also joined the alliance.
Abu Dhabi made a similar connection in November, when he formed a consortium combining his air cargo unit, port and healthcare purchasing arm with the Swiss container designer SkyCell AG to facilitate the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines globally.
The United Arab Emirates, of which Abu Dhabi and Dubai are part, plan to start manufacturing the vaccine developed by Chinese Sinopharm later this year. The oil-rich country approved Pfizer Inc. and Shot from BioNTech SE, and from Russia’s Sputnik V, and has since launched an ambitious vaccination campaign. So far, he has inoculated a quarter of his 10 million population, the third after Israel and Seychelles.
Provide scarcity and logistical problems are slowing vaccines around the world. Dubai has postponed its first dose of the Pfizer vaccine and the European Union has released a plan to restrict exports.
(Updates with the Abu Dhabi program in the fifth paragraph, global scarcity in the seventh)