Two new walk-in coolers, inaugurated at the National Health Mission’s (NHM) vaccine store at Namkum in Ranchi on Saturday, will double the vaccine storage capacity of Jharkhand and help intensify the ongoing immunisation programme against Covid-19, officials said.
“The new walk-in coolers will double our vaccine storage capacity and help us in strengthening the statewide immunisation programme against Covid-19,” said NHM director Umashankar Singh.
Until Saturday, the state had three walk-in coolers of 16 cubic meter capacity each which could store a maximum of 10 lakh vaccine doses at a time, an engineer working with the NHM’s cold storage system said. The new walk-in coolers are 40 cubic meter in size and each of them can accommodate at least six lakh vaccine doses, the official added.
“With the addition of these two bigger walk-in coolers, we will be able to store around 22-25 lakh doses of vaccines at a time,” the NHM engineer, not entitled to speak to the media, said.
Walk-in coolers are used for storing vaccines at a temperature of 2 degrees Celsius to 8 degrees Celsius, optimum for vaccine storage in Indian climate. Covishield and Covaxin, the two Indian vaccines delivered from the Centre to the state, should be stored within these temperatures in order to ensure efficacy.
Jharkhand is likely to receive at least 12 lakh more doses of vaccines this month and the vaccine supply from the Centre is also likely to gain momentum in the days to come, officials said. Having a storage capacity of more than 20 lakh doses will help the state in terms of logistics to step up the immunisation programme.
As per latest data with NHM, the state has about 1.75 lakh doses of vaccines in stock. So far, Jharkhand has inoculated over 81 lakh residents against Covid-19. Amid the fear of a possible third wave of Covid-19, health experts in the state have said that intensifying the vaccination campaign was the only way to prevent fatalities in future.
As per the schedule of vaccine supply, on July 21, at least 2,13,340 Covishield doses and 31,130 Covaxin doses will be delivered to Jharkhand. The state will receive 2,30,430 Covishield doses and 35,570 Covaxin doses on July 24. At least 2,53,580 Covishield doses will be delivered to Jharkhand the next day and 4,51,970 Covishield doses will reach the state on July 29. The state will also get 68,400 doses of Covaxin on the same day.
Besides the two walk-in coolers, the NHM director also inaugurated a walk-in freezer on Saturday, which will help in storage of polio vaccines during campaigns to be run in future.
