Region gets 21 deep freezers & ILRs; more in a month

PUNE: The Pune region last month received 21 deep freezers and ice-lined refrigerators (ILRs), while another big lot would reach in a month.
The region currently can store over 59 lakh vaccine doses. Officials said if 50% of it was used for routine immunization vaccine storage, the space was enough to store 25 lakh Covid-19 vaccine doses for Pune, Satara and Solapur.
A senior regional health department official said the Government of India was dispatching deep freezers and ILRs for vaccine storage.“The 21 additional deep freezers and ILRs received in December were distributed to Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad and Solapur municipal corporations. This number excludes the region’s existing infrastructure.”
Anticipating the flexible nature of the Covid-19 vaccine supply in terms of mixed products with different storage temperature ranges, the Union government has put a plan in place for supplying additional cold chain equipment. States have been asked to identify sites for installation of walk-in coolers and walk-in-freezers as per the distribution plan of the Centre for effective strengthening of the cold chain network. States have also been told to identify the district and sub-district stores requiring additional cold chain equipment.