- Tourism-dependent islands badly impacted by more than 90% decline in
passenger flights - Supplementary COVID-19 supplies moved through Singapore and Fiji to reach
the Pacific islands
SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 26 November 2020 – The far
flung islands in the Pacific have not been spared the brunt of COVID-19. The
World Health Organization has been working tirelessly to ensure much-needed
supplies and healthcare equipment reach the shores of these islands. While the
number of cases has been relatively small,
many of these countries, which are heavily dependent on tourism, have been
impacted by the dramatic cuts in passenger flights, resulting in a logistical
challenge to send in basic supplies on a regular basis.
Image taken prior to Covid-19
This week, the World Health Organization coordinated its
latest cargo donation through DHL Global Forwarding (“DHL”), the freight
specialist of Deutsche Post DHL Group, to support the islands’ fight against
COVID-19. The shipments, worth over EUR 650,000 contained medical devices such
as oxygen concentrator sets, patient monitors and pulse oximeters, were
airfreighted from Singapore to Fiji, where they will be dispatched to eight
islands in the Pacific. The Pacific Islands, which had previously managed to
avoid large outbreaks, experienced a recent
spike in COVID-19 infections that doubled its total number of cases.
Due to the shortage of air capacity with passenger flights
reduced by more than 90%, the freight had to be broken down into three tranches,
sent some two weeks apart. DHL Global Forwarding organized the first shipment
from Singapore to Fiji on 22 October, and will be stored till the last shipment
arrives on 19 November. From Fiji, special flights or shipping lines were then
organized into eight markets, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Solomon
Islands, Tokelau, Tuvalu and Tonga, to ensure they reached their destination.
“Ensuring that the Pacific Island countries have access to
the necessary medical equipment and supplies to prepare for and respond to
COVID-19 is a priority for the World Health Organization. But reaching such
remote places, especially when so many airports are closed, is a huge
logistical challenge. WHO is happy to be working with our partners like DHL to
be able to make this happen.” said Dr Takeshi Kasai, WHO Regional Director for
the Western Pacific.
The medical devices, which will be sent to hospitals and
other healthcare institutions, will aid local medical professionals in treating
COVID-19 patients.
“Whilst the Pacific Islands’ geographic distance from
densely populated countries had helped them avert major outbreaks during the
pandemic, it has equally worked against them in acquiring much-needed supplies due
to the scarcity of air freight capacity. As one of the few global logistics
players in the Islands and one with a geographic footprint as wide as ours, we
are glad to be able to play a part in delivering the medical equipment and
living up to our purpose of ‘Connecting People, Improving Lives,” said Kelvin
Leung, CEO, DHL Global Forwarding Asia Pacific.
More than ever before, the
criticality of logistics networks have been demonstrated in the battle to get
much needed supplies to countries that need it the most. Since the start of the
year, DHL Global Forwarding tapped on its network of life science and
healthcare facilities, temperature-controlled solutions and customs clearance
expertise to fly more than 1.3
million COVID-19 test kits from South Korea
to Brazil, Ecuador, India, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Saudi Arabia. The
freight forwarder also launched a dedicated 100-ton
weekly air freight service for organizations
and governments shipping health and medical-related items and other goods from
China to Middle East and Africa.
Note to editors:
Vaccine logistics for Covid-19 will pose challenges along
the supply chain that must be jointly addressed by governments, NGOs,
pharmaceutical companies, and logistics players urgently. Find out what lessons Covid-19 has taught
on securing stable supply chains for future emergencies and the complexities in
distributing the vaccine across the globe.
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