Pakistan establishing cold-chain storage system for COVID-19 vaccines

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will complete the installation of a modern ultra-cold storage system for COVID-19 vaccines next week, citing sources, ARY News reported on Saturday.

The federal government has taken emergency measures to curb the spread of coronavirus during its third wave in Pakistan and expedited the installation process of the cold-chain storage system.

The ultra-cold chain storage system is being established in 15 cities that will be completed next week.

In the federal capital, three ultra-cold freezers will be installed. Two freezers will be installed in the federal Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) and National Institute of Health (NIH) and one in Tarlai Rural Health Centre.

The specialised freezers will be kept in five cities of Punjab province including Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Multan and Gujranwala.

Read: Hospitals dealing with influx of COVID-19 patients, cautions Dr Faisal

In Sindh, the freezers will be kept in the port city Karachi and Hyderabad, whereas, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), it will be installed in Peshawar, Swat and Abbottabad. The freezers will be installed in Balochistan capital Quetta too, sources said.

It has been decided to install two ultra-cold freezers in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK)’s Muzaffarabad and Mirpur, as well as one in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB). The modern ultra-cold freezers for COVID-19 vaccines had been provided by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).

The modern storage containers will be used for storing the Pfizer vaccines which need ultra-low temperatures up to -80 degrees. The cold chain system in Pakistan has a capacity of -20 degrees to store temperature-sensitive commodities.

It is pertinent to mention here that Pfizer Covid vaccines are likely to arrive in Pakistan during the next three months.