Mumbai Airport puts together task force to transport and manage COVID-19 vaccine

As the world still tries to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, with several companies working towards getting us an effective vaccine, Mumbai Airport has put together a task force to handle the shipments of COVID-19 vaccine and facilitate proper planning and collaboration between the Airport and the stakeholders. This includes the supply chain partners, vaccine distributors and the government bodies.

Along with ensuring strict security measures, the COVID-19 vaccine task force of Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) will ensure that the required temperature for the vaccine is maintained and reduce waiting time by obtaining special approvals from concerned authorities. Mumbai Airport has also put together a 24-hour customer service department to address any concerns and queries related to COVID-19 vaccine export and import, according to media reports. 

Mumbai Airport gears up for COVID-19 vaccine 

Mumbai Airport has made a special arrangement to ensure that the import and export of COVID-19 vaccine is smooth for all the stakeholders involved. The 24-hour customer service cell will provide status updates and pre-alerts for all COVID-19 vaccine consignments being exported or imported. As per a report by Hindustan Times, a CSMIA spokesperson informed that the authorities have made flexible slots available for ad hoc charter operations which play a vital role in ensuring hassle-free facilitation of storage and transportation of the vaccine. This comes despite the fact that Mumbai Aiport is the country's largest gateway for pharmaceutical export and import and offers state-of-art facilities for the same including excellent infrastructure. 

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CSMIA has facilities to ensure controlled temperature during movement and processing of pharmaceutical goods throughout the airport which is important for the storage and transportation of COVID-19 vaccine. According to the same portal, Mumbai Airport spokesperson also stated that the airport's temperature-controlled export pharmaceutical excellence centre, being Asia's largest, has an annual handling capacity of 350,000 tonnes. He further informed that it is made in an area of 4,000sqm and has a total of 140 unit load device storage position with 50 power outlets for any active containers that require charging. He further informed that the airport will host 6 truck docks dedicated to 24-hours cargo acceptance among other things, as per media reports.

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COVID-19 vaccine in India

As of now, three coronavirus vaccine candidates are leading the race on a global level, namely Bharat Biotech's Covaxin, Zydus Cadila's ZyCoV-D and Serum Institute of India's Covishield which is being made in partnership with Oxford University and  AstraZeneca. Bharat Biotech and ICMR's Covaxin has successfully completed phase one and two trials and phase three of human trials are currently underway. Serum Institute of India's Covishield is currently in phase three trials and interim data shows that it has about 90% efficacy. Zydus Cadila's ZyCoV-D had kicked off phase two clinical trials in August and have announced their plan to apply for phase three trials in December and launch the vaccine by March 2021, as per media reports. 

(With inputs from agencies)

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