March 26, 2021: Abu Dhabi's Hope Consortium is targeting to deliver 18 billion vaccines around the world by the end of this year.

The consortium has distributed over 20 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to 26 countries since its formation in November 2020, authorities informed.

"Abu Dhabi ports have developed one of the best storages for the vaccines. We don't only deliver them to airports across the world but also coordinate with governments to transport the vaccines to hospitals or centres where they will be administered from," said Mohamed Juma Al Shamsi, group CEO of Abu Dhabi Ports and chairman of the operations steering committee of Hope Consortium.

The global logistics centre’s facilities in Abu Dhabi can store up to 70 million vaccines, which require standard refrigeration temperatures of 2°C to 8°C, including those produced by Sinopharm and Oxford/AstraZeneca. It also has the capacity to handle between three million and five million vaccines that require ultra-cold storage of minus 80°C. There are 50 “freezer farm” units in the facility for such vaccines.

At a media preview of the two-day World Immunisation and Logistics Summit, Al Shamsi shared how the UAE capital provides the efficient end-to-end supply chain solution to the world, reports Khaleej Times.

The hub is being run by the department of health Abu Dhabi; Etihad Cargo; Abu Dhabi Ports Company; Rafed, part of ADQ; and SkyCell.

Agility, Aramex, CEVA Logistics, Hellmann, and Kuehne + Nagel are the freight forwarder partners onboarded to deliver billions of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine doses.