vaccine temperature sensitive cargo28 Jun 2020 23:09
Air cargo stands at the centre of Covid-19 vaccine logistics operation. In delivering a vaccine, which is a temperature sensitive product and considering the urgent and widespread need to stop the spread of Covid-19, it is essential that it gets to people as soon as it is out with its potency intact. Temperature-controlled containers and freighters
May companies making temperature-controlled containers for air cargo like Envirotainer SkyCell, va-Q-tec, DoKasch etc. are gearing up for this mission. From production and preconditioning to final delivery. Informing on the speculative preconditioning needed for the vaccine, Deshmukh explained that “Normally the vaccine industry works on WHO type one, type two and type three classification of a cold tray management and we would like to be indicating that there is a big range — you can go up to 35 degrees and down to 2 degrees and not frozen. So, (the vaccine) would be in that range, but the storage for a longer duration would be 2 to 8 degrees.” Minding the temperature bracket of 2 to 8 degrees needed in case of storing the vaccine for a longer period brings the air cargo at the front, heading this logistics operation. This also brings to mind the dent in air cargo capacity caused due to the lost belly capacity from the grounded passenger aircraft, which further narrows down the onus onto freighter aircraft.