States prepare cold chain for storage and transportation of COVID-19 vaccine

The state governments of Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh are preparing for COVID-19 vaccine storage as pharma companies are looking to apply for emergency use authorization.

Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel said the state government has put together the cold chain infrastructure to store and transport COVID-19 vaccine, alongwith a system for vaccination and lists of priority beneficiaries. “We have created the entire cold chain infrastructure for storage and transportation of vaccine, teams of vaccinators, and list of priority beneficiaries,” he said. “As many as 47,796 vaccination centers have been identified in the state to administer the vaccine, and 15,534 teams will be deployed for this.”

Patel highlighted that a high-level committee headed by Chief Secretary Anil Mukim and consisting of secretaries of various departments has been formed. He said Mukim is coordinating with health officials to ensure that the vaccination is provided upto the village level. “The government has also prepared lists of beneficiaries as per the priorities decided by the central government,” Patel pointed out. “Around 3.9 lakh healthcare workers including 2.71 lakh government doctors, nurses, lab technicians and Class-3 and 4 employees as well as 1.25 lakh doctors, nurses, lab technicians and employees of private hospitals engaged in COVID duty will be given the first priority.”

The Deputy CM added that they have collected the names and addresses of beneficiaries of first and second priority, and begun preparing the list of third priority of those over 50 years of age. He said list of people under 50, but with serious aliments is also being prepared.

Uttar Pradesh

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh chief Minister Yogi Adityanath directed officials to increase storage capacity for COVID-19 vaccines. He launched the Mera COVID Kendra mobile application, which will assist people find COVID-19 testing centers near them. Adityanath told officials to increase the cold storage capacity to 2.30 lakh litres by December 15 and to ensure that healthcare workers are trained in large number to administer vaccines.

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“All security arrangements should be made to ensure its availability. The safety of the vaccine storage spots should be ensured in the same manner as that of the electronic voting machines (EVMs),” the chief minister said. “We will certainly win our ongoing battle against COVID-19 by remaining cautious and vigilant.” Adityanath recalled when the RT-PCR test was conducted for the first day in the King George Medical University on March 23, with only 72 tests done that day. “Today, with our teams working under all circumstances, we have completed two crore tests.”