Amid indications of a Covid-19 medicine being available by year-end, the Modi government is ready with a plan its swift delivery across the country. The government, in fact, has already begun a massive exercise to map out cold chain storage facilities to ensure the vaccine is delivered to the needy without any hiccups.
A national expert group is talking to public and private sector entities in the pharmaceutical sector, food processing industry and agro businesses as well as food delivery startups such as Swiggy and Zomato to identify cold storages or fridges at the taluka level that can stock and distribute the vaccine, news agency PTI quoted sources with direct knowledge of the discussions as saying.
A draft scheme for the vaccine distribution is likely to be released by next week, they said. At least one domestic and three foreign vaccines are likely to be available to India in the coming months, the report said.
Most of the vaccine candidates will require a cold supply chain, with temperatures that can go well below zero degree Celsius, down to -80 degrees Celsius, though most need to be kept at between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius.
Sources said that an estimation of cold chain space needed for vaccines has been made considering 18% of the population would need to be covered within six months, they said, adding that both the current temperature ranges (+2 to +8 degrees Celsius and -15 to -20 degrees Celsius) have been considered for the scenario to account for adequate storage in either condition.
The Union Health Ministry has already begun the process of increasing the cold chain capacity across the country for the storage of the vaccine.
While most of the vaccine products under development require traditional cold chain temperature range (+2 to +8 degrees Celsius and -15 to -20 degrees Celsius), some products might require -60 to -80 degrees Celsius temperature for which support of the private sector which maintains such storage can be sought.
With multiple immunisation sessions getting planned, additional support by increasing the fleet of refrigerated vans to transport vaccines will support the mega immunisation drive, they said. The sources quoted by PTI said that cold chain capacity in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Kerala, Telangana, and Delhi have to be improved. Other states that need to augment cold chain capacity are Assam, Jharkhand, Punjab and Odisha.
Earlier this week, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said the government expects to receive and utilise 400-500 million vaccine doses for Covid-19 and cover approximately 20-25 crore people by July 2021. The Centre has also reportedly directed states to make a robust plan for vaccine storage and distribution by 15 October.
With PTI inputs