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Leading Dubai-based companies have formed an alliance to move 2 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines around the world this year.
Airline Emirates, dockworker DP World and Dubai Airports worked together to accelerates the spread of vaccinations through Dubai, the Gulf Trade and Tourism Center, which is now also aiming to become a vaccination center.
The move “will focus in particular on emerging markets, where the population has been hit hard by the pandemic, and pharmaceutical transport and logistics are challenging”, according to 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 he formed a consortium connecting its air cargo facility, port and healthcare purchasing arm with the Swiss container designer SkyCell AG to facilitate the worldwide distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.
The United Arab Emirates, of which both Abu Dhabi and Dubai are part, plans to start manufacturing the vaccine developed by China’s Sinopharm this year. The oil-rich country approved it Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE’s shot, and the Russian Sputnik V, and has since launched an ambitious vaccination campaign. It has so far vaccinated a quarter of its population of 10 million, third to Israel and Seychelles.
Provision shortages and logistical problems delay vaccine drives the world. Dubai has postponed its first dose of Pfizer vaccine and the European Union has unveiled a plan to curb exports.
(Updates with the Abu Dhabi program in the fifth paragraph, world deficits in the seventh)