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Dubai’s leading companies have formed an alliance to move 2 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines worldwide this year.
Emirates airline, port operator DP World and Dubai Airports have teamed up up to accelerates the distribution of vaccinations through Dubai, the Gulf’s commercial and tourist center, which now aims to become a vaccination center.
The measure “will focus mainly on emerging markets, where populations have been severely affected by the pandemic, and pharmaceutical transport and logistics are challenging,” according to the announcement from the government’s media office.
International Humanitarian City, an emergency response center in Dubai, has also joined the alliance.
Abu Dhabi made a similar connection in November, when it formed a consortium combining the air loading facility, the port and the healthcare arm with the Swiss container designer. SkyCell AG to facilitate the global distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.
The United Arab Emirates, which includes both Abu Dhabi and Dubai, plans to start manufacturing the vaccine developed by Sinopharm in China this year. The oil-rich country has approved Pfizer Inc. and The film BioNTech SE and Sputnik V from Russia and since then have launched an ambitious vaccination campaign. To date, it has inoculated a quarter of its 10 million population, the third after Israel and the Seychelles.
Pound lack and logistical problems slow down the vaccines that run the world. Dubai has postponed the first dose of Pfizer vaccine and the European Union has unveiled a plan to restrict exports.
(Updates to the Abu Dhabi program in the fifth paragraph, the global shortage in the seventh)