COVID-19: Federal Government says ultra chain cold facility ready for vaccine storage

The Nigerian Government says its Ultra Chain Cold facility is set to receive its first dose of the COVID-19 vaccines from the United States of America.

The Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Faisal Shu’aib, said this in Abuja, Nigeria while conducting Journalists round its Ultra Cold Chain facility.

The facility is one of the critical facilities  set up by the Nigerian government and it  is manned by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency.

According to Dr Shu’aib, the facility is ready for the storage of the Vaccines when they eventually arrive in Nigeria.

” I know there are discussions about whether or not we have the right equipment to store them. These Ultra Cold Chain equipments as you can see from the continuous temperature monitoring is minus as 83 point eight degrees Celsius and it’s even because we’ve opened them.

” Each of the 3 UCC facility has the capacity of 700 litres which makes it 2100 litres in all. The 100,000 doses of the fpizer vaccines we are expecting will occupy just 500 litres of space. So we have more than enough space for first dose we are expecting”. Dr Shu’aib explained.

He however, noted that the vaccines can be kept for about 5 days outside the UCC facilities.

He also explained that the projection of vaccinating 70 percent of Nigerians in 2021 and 2022 is predicated on the availability of the vaccines.

Dr Shu’aib added that the Agency will collaborate with some Non governmental Organisations to ensure the effective and safe distribution of the vaccines to the last miles.