E-Paper
UP races to meet cold chain target for 1st phase of Covid-19 vaccine
The first phase of Covid-19 vaccination is expected to immunise over four crore people in the state with the focus on frontline corona warriors, including health workers.
The Uttar Pradesh government is aiming to create 2,03,938 litre space for cold chain maintenance at temperatures between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius for the first phase of the Covid-19 vaccine. This 2.03 lakh litre space includes 87,801 litre ordinarily used for routine immunisation.
The first phase of Covid-19 vaccination is expected to immunise over four crore people in the state with the focus on frontline corona warriors, including health workers. Uttar Pradesh has a population of about 23 crore.
So far, 80,733-litre space has been created, according to official data. Now, work is going on in 75 districts for creating an additional 1,23,205 litre cold chain space.
For the Covid-19 vaccine alone, 1,16,137 litre space has to be created in the first phase in December.
Construction work is going on in 22 districts for making exclusive vaccine depots, while repair work is underway in 27 others.
For the districts, the target Covid population is taken in proportion to the state Covid population, which is seven times the number of beneficiaries for routine immunization. The number is roughly equal to 20 per cent of the districts’ population, according to state government officials.
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There are 97,000 doctors registered in Uttar Pradesh and over 65,000 of them are active in practice, according to the state medical faculty data. Apart from doctors, there are nurses, pharmacists, ward boys, lab technicians, cleaning staff and clerks working in hospitals. They are expected to among the first to be vaccinated for Covid-19.
Dr AP Chaturvedi, state immunisation officer, said, “We have not been told how many vaccine vials will be coming, but the infrastructure will be ready in time.”
“Vaccines will come in batches and we will ensure they are dispatched from the depots,” said Dr Chaturvedi.
“As soon as the vials arrive, they will be sent out from the depots for vaccination, making space for more batches to be stocked,” said an official.
Walk-in-freezers, walk-in-coolers, cold chain boxes and deep freezers are to be provided by the union government.
Who will be next after healthcare workers?
After healthcare workers, people above 60-65 years of age could be vaccinated.
“The risk of complications from Covid-19 is up to 50 per cent higher in the elderly and those with comorbidity. As the majority of the elderly suffer from some type of comorbidity such as diabetes or high blood pressure, vaccinating them will be a wise decision,” said Dr Abhishek Shukla, secretary-general, Association of International Doctors and expert in geriatric medicine.
The population of the elderly is over 6 crore in the state and over 5 lakh in state capital Lucknow. The vaccine storage equipment will have electronic vaccine intelligence networking (EVIN) devices that record temperature in which vaccines are stored and if the range is broken, a message is sent via an SMS to the authorities.
