DP World has helped secure the delivery of more than 8 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to the Dominican Republic.
Working in close collaboration with the government, staff at DP World Caucedo, our world-class marine terminal and economic zone near Santo Domingo, played a key role in procuring the vaccines. The first doses began arriving at the port in March this year.
DP World Caucedo has been able to remain operational throughout the pandemic, providing a lifeline to the country by ensuring critical healthcare supplies and essential goods could continue to be move despite the government being forced to implement a nationwide curfew.
As well as supplying the Dominican Republic DP World Caucedo kept goods flowing in the wider Caribbean as a major hub for the region. Extensive logistics facilities in the economic zone, including temperature-controlled warehouse facilities and goods vehicles, enabled vaccine doses to be safety stored and then distributed around the country.
Staff at DP World Caucedo, the only economic zone within a port in the Dominican Republic, also took an active role in assisting with the vaccination programme itself. They established two clinics to allow local communities and employees to receive the vaccine. DP World also donated funds for the purchase of masks, personal protective equipment (PPE) and 5 much-needed ventilators. To date, around 80 percent of Caucedo’s 1,400 staff have been double vaccinated, along with more than 2,500 local residents. According to the most recent data from Reuters, over 10,841,000 doses of vaccine have now been administered nationwide.
Morten Johansen CEO of DP World Caucedo said: “DP World provided financial support together with other private sector companies in the Dominican Republic to secure millions of vaccines for the country. The first doses started to arrive in March this year, and we have continued to collaborate with the government on this.
“Being an island nation, it has been extremely important that DP World Caucedo was able to keep operating during the pandemic to allow critical supplies into the country. We put plans in place to set up a vaccination clinic within our facility for our own employees, as well as one just outside the port for the local community.
“All the administration and processes for signing people up to get vaccinated at the two clinics was handled by volunteers from our staff. We’ve been very successful in vaccinating both the local community and the trucker community that comes in and out of the port here on a daily basis.”
(DP World)
