Singapore became the first country in Asia to receive the delivery of Pfizer vaccine.
Singapore Airlines (SIA1) (SINGY) (SIA) Boeing 747-400 freighter SQ7979 took off from Brussels, Belgium and landed in Singapore at 7.55pm on December 21, 2020. The freighter carried the first batch of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and opened the doors for the beginning of the vaccination process in the country.
“The delivery of this first batch of COVID-19 vaccines to Singapore is an important milestone in the fight against COVID-19 , and we are honoured to be able to play a part in this. It also served to demonstrate SIA’s and the Singapore air hub’s readiness for the very important job of transporting and distributing COVID-19 vaccines internationally,” said Chin Yau Seng, the Senior Vice President Cargo at SIA, in a press release.
Tracking the temperature of the Pfizer vaccine throughout its journey is a challenge. The vaccine was transported in cool boxes, the internal temperature of which had to be carefully tracked.
Prior to the shipment, SIA operated a trial shipment on the same freighter on December 19, 2020.
The Pfizer vaccine is the first COVID-19 vaccine approved by the Health Sciences Authority in Singapore. Countries including the UK, the US and Canada have authorized the vaccine and already started the distribution process. On December 21, 2020, the European Medicines Agency approved the Pfizer vaccine and gave the green light to start the roll-out.