As the drug companies race to develop the vaccine for the deadly coronavirus, the Government has started exploring the possibility of engaging even food delivery start-ups such as Swiggy and Zomato that can stock and distribute the medicine quickly across the country. At the same time it is also exploring possible cold storage facilities with public and private sector entities in the pharma, food processing and agro business.
A draft scheme for the vaccine distribution is likely to be released next week, sources in the Union Health Ministry said adding the online food delivery companies can play a big role in vaccine distribution.
Earlier this week, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had said the Government expects to receive and utilise 400-500 million vaccine doses for Covid-19, and cover approximately 20-25 crore people by July 2021 while Dr Randeep Guleria, Director of the AIIMS had said that the vaccine might be available from January end.
At least one domestic and three foreign vaccines are likely to be available to India in the coming months. Most of the vaccine candidates will require a cold supply chain, with temperatures that can go well below zero degree celsius, though most need to be kept at between 2 and 8 degrees celsius.
According to the Ministry, there are more than 27,000 functional cold chain points of which 750 (3 per cent) are located at the district level and above. The rest are located below the district level. This includes 76,000 cold chain ‘equipment’, 2.5 million health workers, and 55,000 cold chain staff.
Majority of vaccine candidates are in liquid form except a few freeze-dried products. They are to be administered through intramuscular injection/ route and requirement will be a two-dose regimen.
The majority of vaccine candidates would be available in multi-dose vials (2.5, 10, 20, and 50 doses per vial). An estimation of cold chain space needed for vaccines has been made considering 18 per cent of the population would need to be covered within six months, they said, adding that both the current temperature ranges (+2 to +8 degrees celsius and -15 to -20 degrees celsius) have been considered for the scenario to account for adequate storage in either condition, as per sources.
They said there will be a temporary requirement (2-3 months) of surge capacity for large cold storage at the state/regional level to store and distribute large incoming quantities of the vaccine.
Cold chain capacity needs to be augmented most in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Kerala, Telangana, Delhi, Assam, Jharkhand, Punjab and Odisha. Most of the Southern States are doing well in cold storage facilities.
States have also been asked to make a robust plan for vaccine storage and distribution by October 15.