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Nine ultra-cold large freezers arrived early in New Zealand, ready for next year’s delivery of 1.5 million Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines that must be stored in extremely cold environments.
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Nine ultra-cold freezers arrived early in New Zealand. Source: 1 NEWS
The freezers, which are cooled to a cold temperature of -80 ° C, were unloaded in Auckland ports from the Navios Miami, which traveled from Shanghai via Brisbane, this morning.
A spokesman for the Health Ministry said most of the freezers are likely to remain in Auckland, with some expected to be shipped to the South Island as well.
From ultra-cold freezers, Pfizer vaccine can be stored for up to five days in normal cold chain refrigerators at 2-8 ° C.
The spokesperson said this would require “strict inventory management and tracking” of the vaccine to ensure it is given to people within that time frame.
“We plan to distribute vaccines from our central storage facilities in a very controlled manner to our cold chain network across the country, which will ensure that all New Zealanders have access to our immunization program.”
The spokesperson said final details on where the freezers would end up have yet to be confirmed.
The Health Ministry also plans to buy more freezers.
The freezers were due to be unloaded early next month. But that came early after another ship was delayed.
Ports of Auckland receives a shipment of ultra-cold freezers to store Covid-19 vaccines. Source: 1 NEWS
In November, Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods said 1.5 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine should be ready for kiwis by early 2021, if all goes according to plan. Since it is a two-dose vaccine, that means 750,000 people would have access.
The Pfizer vaccine is said to be 90% effective. But, because it must be stored at -70 ° C, the government said it would need to prepare the infrastructure to store and transport it.
The government also has agreements with Janssen, Novavax and AstraZeneca. This will ensure that there are enough vaccines to immunize the entire population.
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The government secured two more vaccines today, meaning the nation now has products from four different manufacturers. Source: 1 NEWS
The entire general population of New Zealand should be able to receive the Covid-19 vaccine from the second half of next year.
Border workers and essential personnel will be the first to be vaccinated, with the expectation that they will be in the second quarter of 2021.
The next group to be vaccinated will be high-risk front-line health workers and front-line personnel from the public sector and emergency services.
The third group would be the elderly and people with underlying health problems, and also health and social service workers at risk.
