By Mahima Devkota, Kathmandu, June 3: Space for storing the COVID-19 vaccine has been separated in the exisitng vaccines storage facilities accross the country in such a way that as many as 3.2 million doses of vaccines can be held at a time in 10 different vaccine storage facilities across the country.

A separate cold room of 2-8 degrees, as directed by WHO, is maintained in all storage centers in order to hold the COVID-19 vaccines. There are no separate storage center for storing the vaccine against COVID-19.

The two storage centers inside the Kathmandu Valley can hold up to 1.6 million doses of vaccine while eight storage centers outside the valley, one in each province, can hold up to remaining 1.6 million doses of the vaccine. 

Bade Bahadur Thapa, senior pharmacist officer at the Department of Health Services (DoHS), said, “The volume of vaccine differs as per the manufacturing companies. Vaccines with large volumes can be stored less than vaccines of small volumes. As a result, the number of vaccines that can be stored in the storage centers also differs.” 

Thapa informed that the volume of the AstraZeneca vaccine is 2.5 cubic centimeter per dose. Similarly, the vaccine provided by the government of Tibet is 170 cubic centimeter per dose and the vaccines aided by Central China is 29.8 cubic centimeter per dose. 

Earlier, we could not speculate so it was difficult to hold the intended number of vaccines. From the first phase of vaccination, we derived that rather than holding vaccines in the center, it is better to distribute them to the respective storage centers for there will be vacant space to hold more vaccines. So, we are planning to deliver the vaccines provided by China at the earliest, added Thapa. 

Around 4 lakh vaccines provided by the People’s Republic of China that are delivered in Nepal in the second phase have been stored in the Airport, he added.

China recently provided a million doses of COVID-19 vaccines as an aid to Nepal.

Sudur Paschim Province, Lumbini Province and Karnali Province will receive COVID-19 vaccine tomorrow. Province 1, 2 and the Bagmati province will receive vaccines on Saturday and Gandaki Province will see vaccine on Sunday, Thapa told The TRN Online. 

Thapa said that around 140 thousand vaccines will be delivered in Biratnagar, 75 thousand in Pokhara, 127 thousand in Lumbini, 50 thousand in Nepalgunj, which holds vaccines for Karnali Province and 85 thousand for the Surdur Paschim Province. "Further, discussions are being held with each provinces to enquire about their holding capacities as well as the demand of vaccines".

Besides, the vaccine carrier and cold box plays a pertinent role for smooth running of the vaccination campaign. So, the district level government has been handed the responsibility to manage the vaccination campaign in their respective districts for they have better understanding about effective methods to carry out the campaign, he added. 

The vaccine storage centers in Kathmandu Valley are at Teku and Airport, while other storage centers are in Biratnagar, Butwal, Nepalgunj, Surkhet, Dhangadhi, Hetauda and Pokhara. Of them, 2 are in the Kathmandu Valley and the other 8 are outside of the valley in each Province. 

The vaccine storage facility at Teku in Kathmandu can hold as much as 8 lakh of COVID-19 vaccines.