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US vaccine campaign will launch with convoy of trucks from factory
Convoy’s of trucks, with trailers, are scheduled to roll out of Pfizer Inc’s manufacturing facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan on Sunday as the US begins to roll out it largest and most complex vaccination program ever.
As the COVID-19 virus rages unabated throughout the country, US regulators on Friday authorized the use of the vaccine from Pfizer and its partner BioNTech.
US marshals will on Sunday escort the tightly guarded shipments from the factory to their final destination, Reuters reported.
“We have spent months strategizing with Operation Warp Speed officials and our healthcare customers on efficient vaccine logistics, and the time has arrived to put the plan into action,” Wes Wheeler, president of UPS Healthcare, said on Saturday.
Pfizer’s dry-ice cooled packages can hold as many as 4,875 doses, and the first leg of their journey will be from Kalamazoo to planes positioned nearby.
Workers will load the vaccine – which must be kept at sub-Arctic temperatures – onto the aircraft that will shuttle them to United Parcel Service or FedEx air cargo hubs in Louisville, Kentucky, and Memphis, Tennessee, respectively.
From there, they will be trucked or flown to facilities close to the 145 US sites earmarked to receive the first doses.
Familiar UPS and FedEx package delivery drivers, who may also be carrying holiday gifts and other parcels, will deliver many of the “suitcases” into the hands of healthcare providers on Monday. The shipments are the first of three expected this week.
Healthcare workers and elderly residents of long-term care homes are first in line to receive the inoculations.
Pfizer’s inoculations have the most restrictive requirements for shipping and storage temperature, minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94°F).