Coronavirus COVID 19 - Communication to the missions

Hello,

Here is a state of play of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the transport activities of MSF Supply.

An evaluation of the situation has been done these past two days with our freight forwarders and the customs.

PPE

In the frame of the Covid-19 response, the EU has ban the exportation of different categories of items out of the EU state members.

While an exemption system exists, it has not been clearly explained how to apply for it.

Since the date of application, MSF Supply got several cargo blocked.

Contacts have been made with the EU authorities and Belgium government and negotiation are ongoing.

We will keep you up to date.

Air transport

The air transport of goods being linked a lot to the transport of passengers, it is currently disturbed to and from Asia. It is nevertheless coming back to normal little by little with the decrease of the epidemic in that part of the world.

Airline companies flying to Africa are facing less disruptions for now, but in light of the new measures taken by the European Union, it is likely that the traffic of passengers will decrease and that consequently cargo flights will soon be full. That will lead to an increase of the transport prices and to an increase of the delivery time. Not any destination is blocked for now but that could evolve.

Sea transport

Concerning sea transport, the decrease of the activities in Asia and particularly in China has caused disruptions in the traffic of containers worldwide. A large number of containers ended up immobilized with no possibility of being unloaded and the availability of empty containers in Europe has dropped. And increase of the transport prices and an increase of the delivery time are also to be foreseen.

Management of the activity in MSF Supply

Since this morning, the teams physically present in MSF Supply have been drastically reduced. The employees are homeworking to limit the risk of spreading the disease. Only the employees whose activity requires to be physically present in MSF Supply are there. That includes people working in the warehouse because the activity is maintained for now and the Expedition and Operation teams are doing shifts between MSF Supply and their homes.

All the employees are reachable and everything was done to ensure the continuity of the activities and the shipment of your orders to your respective missions. 

We will do our best to keep you informed of developments regarding this exceptional situation and be assured that we are doing everything we can to guaranty the continuity of the activities and good quality of service.

Best regards,

OCB Covid-19 task Force and MSF Supply