Two truckloads of the Moderna vaccine arrived in Louisville Sunday morning at UPS Worldport.
Each semi had hundreds of boxes of the vaccine, according to a pool report. One of the first batch of packages will be delivered locally while UPS will transport the rest elsewhere.
UPS spokesperson Jim Mayer said both this vaccine and the Pfizer vaccine that started shipping last week are temperature-controlled, and UPS is familiar with handling critical medical deliveries. But these packages are different because they’re closely monitored by the Health Care Command Center.
“The command center gets information from the trackers in each box, showing temperatures and any other parameters,” he said.
One of the UPS employees unloading the shipments was Jesirae Elzey, a package handler. She said she’s happy to take part in getting the vaccines to Louisville and around the world — and maybe even to Guam, where she’s from.
“I’ve had friends and family who have had it, including a newborn,” said Jesirae Elzey, a package handler. “It feels really good that we can help her.”
One of the semi drivers, Todd Elble, lost his father to COVID-19.
“When I was asked to do this, I couldn’t think of a better honor to do for my father than to do this today,” he said.
