Delhi is expected to receive its first batch of vaccines by the end of December, officials of the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital, the first vaccine storage facility in Delhi. Cold-chain points across the country are remodelling and improving themselves to support the storage of the upcoming Covid-19 vaccine.
B.L. Sherwal, medical director of the hospital, said the vaccine doses are expected to arrive by the month-end for which a separate facility in the hospital has been demarcated to storage.
He said, "The vaccine doses would arrive at the storage units by the end of December. To store them in Delhi, we have demarcated a building on the campus which is currently undergoing refurbishment.”
A three-storey building in the hospital premises, spread over an area of 5,000 square metres, has been found suitable by the Centre to be used as a vaccine storage facility.
Sherwal further informed that the Centre is providing deep refrigerators of different varieties to support the storage temperature of the variety of vaccines which are currently under different stages of clinical trials.
"The Centre would provide us with deep refrigerators with storage capacity ranging from -20 to -70-degree Celsius. Besides, model 228, which are regular refrigerators used to store medical drugs, would also come along," Sherwal said.
The demarcated vaccine storage facility would be revamped in the next few days. He said the deep refrigerators would arrive by mid-December, adding that, "Currently, we are remodelling the electrical points and other infrastructure as per the requirements of the deep refrigerators.”
The states and Union Territories have been asked to review cold storage and refrigerated vans used for the already existing universal immunisation programme. Under the programme, around 28,000 cold chain points are used, along with 700 refrigerated vans.
Whichever vaccine candidate is available for use first, its first dose will be administered to 1 crore healthcare workers across the country, as planned by the Centre.
There are five vaccine candidates in various stages of trials in India under the Serum Institute of India which is manufacturing the Oxford-AstraZeneca candidate, which will in a little more time apply for emergency marketing authorisation of the vaccine. Its vaccine can be stored at temperatures between 2 and 8-degree Celsius.
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The other candidates under clinical trials are - Bharat Biotech, Zydus Cadila, Russian Sputnik - V in collaboration with Dr Reddy, and Biological E.
The lowest minimum temperature at which vaccines can be kept to maintain the cold chain in most areas in the country is -25-degree Celsius as there is only one vaccine in India -- Bharat Biotech's Rotavirus vaccine -- which needs to be stored at -20-degree Celsius.