Dedicated cold storage unit set up at Pataudi hospital for Covid-19 vaccines

A dedicated cold storage unit has been set up at the Civil Hospital in Pataudi to store the Covid-19 vaccine, which is likely to arrive in the city on Wednesday night

A dedicated cold storage unit has been set up at the Civil Hospital in Pataudi to store the Covid-19 vaccine, which is likely to arrive in the city on Wednesday night. The facility has a walk-in cooler and deep freezers equipped with constant temperature checks to maintain the potency of the vaccine, said officials.

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Located almost 30 kilometres from the main city, the facility has the capacity to facilitate storage of over 300,000 Covid-19 vaccine doses. It is a regional reserve that will supply vials to other nearby districts of Faridabad, Palwal, Nuh and Rewari, said health officials. In Gurugram alone, vaccine vials will be transported to at least 36 public healthcare centres and further to vaccination sites through small vaccine carriers.

Dr Neelu Yadav, senior medical officer, Civil Hospital, Pataudi, said, “The storage facility is equipped to store vaccine whenever it arrives. Earlier this month, the district vaccine storage unit had to be shifted from the old Civil Hospital due to construction of the new hospital building. Therefore, for Covid-19, a separate cold storage unit has been prepared to stock vaccine at the optimal temperature.”

The store has a walk-in cooler, which is like a modular cold room to put vaccines and the temperature of the cooler is maintained at 5 degrees Celsius. Two temperature measurement devices and a small temperature printer are affixed outside the walk-in cooler to monitor and record the temperature, and check any fluctuation between checks.

“Over 2.5 lakh (250,000) doses can be stored inside the walk-in cooler. To maintain the temperature, walk-in coolers are opened only when necessary. Opening it every now and then can lead to fluctuations in temperature, affecting the vaccine’s potency,” said Sushil Sewak, a district cold chain technician, who has been working with the Gurugram health department for the last 33 years.

“Covid-19 vaccination is a major exercise and has to be handled cautiously. Thereby, all arrangements are being done to properly store the vaccine,” he said, displaying another small cooler, shaped like a refrigerator, which can stock over 40,000 vials.

The unit also has four ice-line refrigerators or deep freezers to refrigerate ice packs for transportation of the vaccine. These are in addition to the four deep freezers used in the vaccines for routine immunisation programmes.

“Presently, the temperature of the ice pack is -25 degrees Celsius. These ice packs will be conditioned at the required vaccine temperature of 2 degrees Celsius to 8 degrees Celsius before the Covid-19 vials are placed in the round sockets. It is also called temperature conditioning before vials are put inside the vaccine carriers for distribution to community healthcare centres and primary healthcare centres and further to vaccination sites,” said Sewak.

Each refrigerator has Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN) to monitor the temperature of the cold chain and vaccine stock. The details can be accessed through a mobile phone. In addition, almost 285,000 auto-disable syringes of 0.5 ml, for the vaccination, have also been stored at the facility.

On Tuesday, two policemen were seen deployed on 24-hour duty outside the storage unit.

Balbir, a policeman deployed at the site, said, “We have to prevent unnecessary gatherings and movements near the storage facility for a few days, until the vaccination is launched. There will be restricted entry; only health department and senior government officials will be allowed. Extra vigil will be kept during night hours.”