With the hope of a COVID-19 vaccine around the corner; the next big challenge is the delivery of the vaccine across the world. Viraj Vohra, Director, Continental Carriers talks about the various components involved in the supply of vaccine and how to handle this enormous operation.
Kalpana Lohumi
Where does India stand in the world’s race of producing and transporting COVID-19 vaccine?
Globally approximately more than 150 companies are working day and night on developing a vaccine for COVID-19. After the final stage of developing a vaccine is over, the most challenging next stage would be to produce and provide the same at a competitive price to the world. Undoubtedly, India is the first choice to produce vaccines as it is the largest manufacturer of vaccines with a major market share. Russia and the USA have already announced to produce COVID-19 vaccine in collaboration with India. We are confident that vaccine manufacturing companies are geared up to manage this challenge. But are we ready with our logistics service to supply the same to the world and entire domestic population? The most important aspect of COVID vaccine is that it is required for the entire population and not only for kids or women of a particular age.
Do you think India has the infrastructure to move vaccine?
There is a big difference between routine freight forwarding and vaccine supply management. Vaccine supply is quite complex and requires a temperature-controlled atmosphere throughout the shipping process, starting from the manufacturing unit until the delivery point. We cannot afford to ignore vaccine freight. We need enough cold chain trucks, freighters and a good freight management scenario and expert handling of the same. Airlines should convert passenger planes to freighters to increase the freight capacity.
Good numbers of cold chain trucks are required to fulfil the last-mile delivery of the vaccine. A number of the leading COVID-19 vaccines under development will need to be kept at temperatures as low as minus 80 degrees Celsius from the bottling stage till they are injected into patients. A good number of planes, trucks, warehouses and health centres will need to be outfitted with freezers. The erratic electric supply at the final point where the vaccination will be stored for the public will be another challenge. We just cannot ignore the risk factor and security concerns involved in logistics for the vaccines. Vaccine logistics would require special planning, secured loading and protection throughout its movement.
Another important aspect which needs utmost attention is related to cargo terminals. Cargo terminals are congested and lack of cold storage facilities; almost all activities related to air cargo processing are being done at the cargo terminals in the airport area. With the growth of cargo volume, the current space at most cargo terminals in India is miserably insufficient, leading to severe congestion issues. The concept of Air Freight Station (AFS) was conceived as a solution to reduce congestion in the airport terminals, to improve efficiency, reduce dwell time, maximise the utilisation of installed capacity and reduction in logistics cost.
AFS is an innovative solution that would complement an air cargo terminal. This concept is a success globally and has been proved as an equally successful model in the shipping cargo sector in India. But it is disappointing to mention that AFS has not been made operational for certain unknown reasons. Interestingly, there are logistics companies like Continental Carriers, who have already invested heavily in the AFS infrastructure development and are waiting for the go-ahead from the relevant government authority. There is an urgent need to remove barriers which impede the functioning of AFS.
A policy needs to be implemented as soon as possible to decongest terminals & cater to the ever-increasing demand for sensitive cargo. Storage and delivery of COVID vaccine will certainly be a challenge and it is high time that manufacturing units, supply chain companies and the government join hands, work in coordination and take calculative effective measures to avoid last minute chaos.
