MUMBAI: Approximately 10 lakh vials of Covid-19 vaccine can be stored in city storage facilities right now, he said BMC officials.
As the battle against Covid-19 will involve vaccinating the majority of Mumbai ‘s 1.4 million rupee population, the BMC has just started work on creating a mega facility that can store more than 50 lakh of vials at his health center in Kanjurmarg. Spread over 5,000 square feet on the first floor of the Parivar building, it will be known as the Regional Center for Vaccine Storage.
“The center should be ready in a week,” said BMC Additional Commissioner Suresh Kakani. He said the team involved in creating the freezer and refrigerators at the Kanjurmarg center believe up to a crore dose can be stored here.
On Saturday, while four districts in the state had a “trial” to verify readiness for the Covid-19 vaccination campaign, the BMC conducted its own verification.
In addition to visiting each of the eight hospitals where vaccination for healthcare workers will begin, the team led by Kakani also visited the Kanjurmarg facility. The five-story Kanjurmag building is BMC’s health center.
Each of the eight hospitals has an ice line refrigerator that was shipped by the state government.
“We also have storage facilities at BMC’s public health department office in Parel,” Kakani said. “We want to create a facility that can even store vaccines that need a lower temperature.”
Dr Hemant Deshmukh, dean of the BMC-run KEM Hospital in Parel, said there were adequate storage facilities for Covid-19 vaccines in the city.
Each of the 17 coolers in the ice line, for example, has a capacity of 1,000 liters, while a single dose of vaccine is 0.5 ml.
“Now we are focusing on maintaining the cold chain in the last mile of distribution,” he said.
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