Pfizer announced the first results of its Phase 3 COVID-19 vaccine trial on Nov. 9, and the vaccine advisory panel of the Food and Drug Administration is expected to begin its review next Thursday, but Connecticut hospitals were not about to wait for either of these milestones to start making plans for vaccine storage.

The Pfizer vaccine needs to be stored at minus-94 degrees Fahrenheit, otherwise its active ingredient — mRNA — will degrade.

Dr. Frederick Browne, chief medical officer at Griffin Health, told Connecticut Public Radio that Griffin Health put in the order for a special freezer over the summer. Eric Arlia, senior director of system pharmacy for Hartford HealthCare, the parent company of Backus Hospital in Norwich, said the system ordered a freezer in September.

"I'm glad we did because there's quite a demand on them now," he said. "We got it in about four weeks, and it's been here for a while, and we've been running it. It's ready to go."

The freezer is in a pharmacy storage area at Hartford Hospital; Arlia said it's 28 cubic feet and can fit about 280,000 vaccine doses. In accordance with a requirement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, someone will continuously monitor the freezer and log the temperature.

Arlia said the system also got a smaller ultracold freezer for St. Vincent's Medical Center in Bridgeport, since it's farther away from the other hospitals, and ordered three different sizes of cryogenic gloves.

"This isn't like touching a snowball outside," he said. "You cannot touch something at that temperature with your bare skin; you'll damage your skin."

Getting the vaccine from the freezer into arms takes some advanced planning, which will be based on how many people register for clinics at different hospitals.

Arlia said the vaccine takes three hours to defrost and is stable in a refrigerator for up to five days, meaning the vaccine can't be taken out of the freezer at the last minute nor too far in advance.

Rather, a health care worker would register for a vaccine clinic at a certain time, and receive a vaccine that was defrosted, delivered to the hospital the day before, and refrigerated.

Arlia said between the 280,000-dose storage capacity at Hartford Hospital and other hospitals in the state with ultracold freezers, he thinks there will be enough capacity to manage the vaccine. But he doesn't know if hospitals will be asked to keep using the Pfizer vaccine, or to also use the Moderna vaccine.

Connecticut expects to get about 31,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine Dec. 14 and 63,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine on Dec. 21, Gov. Ned Lamont said Thursday.

The Moderna vaccine can be stored in standard medical freezers instead of ultracold ones, and can last for 30 days in a refrigerator instead of five.

Arlia said Hartford HealthCare bought additional regular freezers for the Moderna vaccine, and they actually took longer to arrive than the ultracold freezer: two and a half months instead of one.

Freezers and dry ice

In an email response to written questions, Mark Rogers said Yale New Haven Health has the proper freezer to store the Pfizer vaccine at ultra-cold temperatures as well as processes to distribute the vaccine throughout system hospitals. Rogers is the director of pharmacy for Lawrence + Memorial and Westerly hospitals.

Rogers said L+M has what is needed to start vaccinations as soon as the FDA grants Emergency Use Authorization for the vaccine, but the hospital is ordering additional freezers for added capacity.

"Scheduling and administration of the vaccine needs incredible coordination to eliminate waste and maintain storage temperatures," he said.

Deidre Gifford, acting commissioner of the state Department of Public Health, said her staff "don't anticipate any problems with ultracold storage capacity in Connecticut, based on what we've learned from our partners." DPH spokesperson Av Harris said 10 hospitals in Connecticut have ultracold storage capacity.

The Connecticut Hospital Association has been working with DPH and its 27 member hospitals — some of which belong to the same health care system — on storage, distribution and administration of the vaccines.

Paul Kidwell, senior vice president of policy for CHA, said DPH sent out a survey to hospitals to understand their current capacity for ultracold storage and what else might be needed.

"Most hospitals already had some cold storage available, and then very quickly, hospitals either began acquiring additional storage or if they didn't have it, began acquiring new storage," Kidwell said. "As of now, I believe all our hospitals do have the capacity to hold the vaccine and keep it at the temperature it requires."

Kidwell noted that the packaging in which vaccines arrive have the ability to be recharged with dry ice, and he knows of at least one Connecticut hospital that is looking at that as an alternative to using ultracold storage units.

CVS spokesperson Mike DeAngelis said the pharmacy also will use dry ice.

"Pfizer has developed special shipment containers that utilize dry ice to transport vaccines," he said in an email. "After five days at our pharmacies the dry ice can be replenished, and again five days later and five days after that. After 15 days the vaccines can be refrigerated for another five, meaning we can store them in our pharmacies for up to 20 days."

"Phase 1a" in Connecticut includes the vaccination of health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities.

While hospitals will be responsible for vaccinating health care workers, the CDC gave long-term care facilities the option to partner with CVS, Walgreens or state authorities. DeAngelis said more than 30,000 facilities chose CVS.

e.moser@theday.com