DHL DELIVERS OVER 60M COVID-19 VACCINE DOSES AND DILUENTS TO THE PHILIPPINES

• More than 60 million vaccine doses and diluents arrived in the Philippines via DHL Express and DHL Global Forwarding through Philippine government procurements and COVAX donations
• Together with a dedicated team of specialists, DHL ensures that life-saving vaccines are shipped with the greatest degree of reliability while satisfying the different stringent vaccines transport requirements

DHL, the world's leading global brand in the logistics industry, has safely delivered more than 60 million Covid-19 vaccine doses and diluents to the Philippines through its business units, DHL Express and DHL Global Forwarding, playing a key role in the local vaccination campaigns, such as Resbakuna of the Department of Health.

From the beginning of May 2021 to the end of December 2021, DHL Express arranged various vaccine brands' arrival on cargo flights from DHL’s Cincinnati, Leipzig, and Hong Kong hubs. DHL Global Forwarding organized the transportation of diluents, which are diluting chemicals required to administer the vaccines, from the manufacturing site in the United States through temperature-controlled packaging airlifted from Chicago to Manila via Dubai. DHL Global Forwarding also handled air freight, customs clearance, and the transportation of these items to an approved warehouse for storage and distribution.

Temperature-sensitive vaccines were shipped in specially designed thermal shipper packaging with dry ice to maintain the required temperature during transportation. Each thermal shipper box also includes temperature trackers equipped with sophisticated GPS technology, allowing full access throughout the journey. With the DHL Air Good Storage & Distribution Practices (GXP) certification, DHL teams ensured that the Covid-19 vaccine shipments were transported timely and safely adapting tailor-made premium shipment monitoring and intervention management solutions.

"DHL in keeping with our purpose of 'Connecting People, Improving Lives', is actively supporting local and global efforts to halt the Covid-19 pandemic by leveraging our logistics expertise and global network," said Nigel Lockett, Country Manager, DHL Express Philippines. He added, "Together with DHL Global Forwarding, we have delivered over 60 million vaccine doses and diluents to the Philippines since May 2021, and DHL is proud to continue our contribution to local efforts and help improve lives in our communities." 

Yvonne Lee, Managing Director of DHL Global Forwarding Philippines, stated, "With our logistics experience in managing life science and healthcare products, we are proud to play a role in supporting the Philippine government’s efforts in improving immunization in the country. As we endure the Covid-19 pandemic globally, DHL places the safety of our citizens first as we seek to live up to our corporate purpose."

As outlined in DHL's white paper "Revisiting Pandemic Resilience," the logistics infrastructure and capacity built up for the pandemic should be maintained because another 7-9 billion vaccine doses will be needed annually in the coming years to keep (re-)infection rates low and to slow down the pace of virus mutations – not counting seasonal fluctuations.

To ensure that as many people as possible have access to vaccines, these doses must be distributed globally. Aside from managing various and complex supply chain configurations, logistics experts have faced significant challenges due to the sensitive temperature requirements. DHL has been tasked with transporting Covid-19 vaccines from Europe and other origins to countries in the Asia Pacific, South America, and Europe via multiple routes.

DHL has already delivered more than 1.8 billion shipments of vaccines to more than 174 countries in the fight against the global health crisis of Covid-19.