Following the Centre’s directive and in preparation for the roll out of the COVID-19 vaccine, Kerala will conduct a dry run for vaccine administration on Saturday in four districts — Thiruvananthapuram, Palakkad, Wayanad and Idukki.
Thiruvananthapuram, as the capital city, will conduct the dry run for vaccine administration in three sites while one site each will be readied in other three districts.
Senior health officials said that the dry run for vaccine administration is expected to go without any hitches as the State has a well-equipped vaccine storage system as well as field staff who have the expertise in vaccine handling. The State is expecting a total of 3.5 lakh health-care workers and support staff in both public and private sector hospitals and dental clinics as well as laboratories to be registered in the first phase.
The data entry into the Central HMIS process is continuing and so far, the data of approximately 2.93 lakh health-care personnel have been entered so far.
Storage facility
The current vaccine storage capacity of the State is more than adequate to handle an additional lot of up to 10 lakh vaccines, apart from the vaccines for routine immunisation which is already stocked, official said.
The three regional vaccine stores at Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Kozhikode and the district vaccine stores together have three walk-in-coolers and 521 ice-lined refrigerators (ILRs).
The primary health centres together have 1,589 ILRs apart from 69 large ILRs across the State.
The COVID vaccine is expected to be stored between 2-8 degree C.
Senior officials said that additionally, in preparation for the COVID-19 vaccination, Kerala has received 20 more ILRs, 1,800 vaccine carriers, 50 cold boxes and 12,000 ice packs from the Union Health Ministry.
In cold boxes
The vaccines which will arrive in cold boxes in flights with digital temperature tags, will be stored in walk-in coolers first and then transported in cold boxes to districts.
The vaccines will keep in cold boxes for 2-3 days if the boxes are unopened.
The vaccines will be stored in ILRs in districts, from where it will be transported to distribution centres in cold boxes and then in ice-packed vaccine carriers to vaccination sites, the officials said.
