1ST IN INDIA: CSMIA EXPORTS COVISHIELD TO INTERNATIONAL DESTINATIONS

MUMBAI: Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) on Friday became the first airport in the country to export the vaccine to international destinations. CSMIA has initiated the international shipment of Covishield vaccine to Brazil and Morocco.

The Covishield vaccine, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, departed from CSMIA carrying two million doses to Brazil via Emirates Sky Cargo and two million doses to Morocco on Royal Air Maroc.

Overall, CSMIA has facilitated the movement of over 14.17 million doses of the Covishield vaccine across various international and domestic destinations. As a premier pharma hub of the country, CSMIA has placed a process for faster turnaround of vaccine export-import (EXIM) and transhipment movements.

“Given the requirement for timely and temperature-controlled movement of the vaccine, the existing infrastructure at CSMIA enables the airport to offer a continuous temperaturecontrolled movement and seamless processing of pharma goods through the airport. The standard operating procedures (SOPs) implemented by the airport in anticipation of the vaccine distribution saw the terminal register a cargo processing time of just 23 minutes, right from goods acceptance to dispatch at the ramp,” said the airport spokesperson.

CSMIA handles the largest portion of EXIM pharmaceutical air cargo movements in the country.

The airport has handled 40 to 50 tonnes of vaccines per day and is home to Asia’s largest temperature-controlled export pharma centre, a facility that has a one-time holding capacity of 800 tonnes for two to eight degrees.