In the ongoing COVID vaccination meetings conducted district-wise in the state, an unmistakable commonality is the discussion on the issue of cold storage facilities. This is a major point of focus not only in Arunachal Pradesh, but also for the whole country since, unlike the Routine Immunization (RI) programmes, vaccination for COVID will be of a much larger scale. The state’s challenge will be unique in the sense it will not be a headache in terms of the population size, but actually in reaching out to the people. This is in sharp contrast to the national scenario where the challenge is more on vaccinating the prospective recipients which has a huge size. The other notable difficulty that might be confronted by the state is the availability of cold chain facilities and their last-mile distribution. In this regard, it is thus urgently necessary, as the experts are pointing out, to go for an immediate cold chain mapping, both district and Block-wise.

Discussions have converged on the cold chain issue mainly due to the air of uncertainty that still prevails regarding the brand(s) that are going to be taken up. While the one that is being prepared by Pfizer which claims to have an above 90% effectiveness will need a storage infra of -75 degrees Celsius, those currently undergoing trials in India reportedly need 2-8 degrees Celsius. As per information doing the rounds, no logistics operators in the country are equipped with such cold storage facilities of above -70 degree Celsius and it’s highly impossible to add such infrastructure within such short facilities. An interesting fact that has emerged is that while the country currently has a 28,000-unit cold storage network that is used for the Universal Immunisation Programme, according to various experts and logistics firms, no company had the capacity to transport vaccines colder than -25 degrees Celsius. The other vital aspect of the supply chain is monitoring of the vaccine all through its transit until the doses are actually delivered to the recipients. The role of the requisite taskforce through whom the doses are going to be delivered will be much crucial and it has been anticipated that the existing army of personnel engaged in RI programmes may not be enough to cater to the Covid vaccination needs.

Arunachal, like the rest of the country will be facing these practical difficulties and perhaps to a greater degree. There will be an obvious problem in reaching out to the far-flung district due to communication bottlenecks. The urgent need is to make an assessment of all of them on a priority basis, go for rectifications and seek Central help if necessary.

In any case, the last-mile distribution of COVID vaccine must be the goal for the state.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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