Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital in northeast Delhi will house the city’s first storage facility for COVID -19 vaccines.
The dedicated COVID -19 hospital has been chosen by the Centre and will be among the first such facilities in the country.
The utility block of the hospital will be utilised for storage facility, which will be spread over 5,000 sq mtr. Moreover, a team of the Union Health Ministry had already surveyed and approved the utility block.
The area is being retrofitted to be converted into a cold storage facility. Modifications are being undertaken as deep freezers will come, for which the existing doors will have to be changed. Apart from power backups, the area will also need more electricity points.
The Delhi government will use the existing cold chain system in the city used for regular immunisation programmes, apart from the supply and distribution chain, for introduction of COVID-19 vaccine, but there was a requirement for a suitable site for bulk storage.
The government is preparing a database of health workers at the frontline, who are likely to get vaccinated in Phase-I. The database will include doctors, nurses, lab technicians, pharmacists and auxiliary nurse midwives from both government and private sectors.
The Union Health Ministry had directed all states and the Union Territories to submit plans on backend infrastructure, cold storage and distribution by 31 October 2020.