The International Air Transport Association (IATA) yesterday urged governments around the world to consider aviation industry employees as essential workers during the impending COVID-19 vaccination campaign after healthcare providers and vulnerable groups have been inoculated.
“We are not asking for aviation workers to be on top of the list, but we need governments to ensure that transportation workers are considered as essential when vaccine roll-out plans are developed,” IATA director-general and CEO Alexandre de Juniac said in a statement.
“The transportation of the COVID-19 vaccines has already begun, and as calculations show, it will require the equivalent of 8,000 Boeing 747 freighter aircraft for global distribution. It is therefore essential that we have the qualified workforce in place to ensure a functioning logistics chain,” De Juniac added.
The Montreal, Canada-based trade association of the world’s airlines said that its call is aligned with the proposed Roadmap for Prioritizing Uses of COVID-19 Vaccines by the WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE), which recommends priority populations for vaccination based on the respective epidemiologic situation and vaccine supply scenarios.
Within this framework, SAGE has included transportation workers alongside other essential sectors outside the health and education sectors, including police, the association said.
Air transport has a vital role in facilitating the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including the timely distribution of medicines, testing kits, protective equipment and vaccines, it said.
Three local biotechnology firms — Adimmune Corp, Medigen Vaccine Biologic Corp and United Biomedical — on Tuesday confirmed that they have approached China Airlines and EVA Airways, as well as cargo companies, about delivering the vaccines they are developing.
Both airlines said they have experience in delivering goods using cold-chain logistics.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
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