(Photo courtesy of QC government)
MANILA – The Quezon City government has “come full circle” in addressing the Covid-19 pandemic following the inauguration of its own cold storage facility for vaccines and medicines, Mayor Joy Belmonte said on Thursday.
Belmonte said the facility in Barangay Paligsahan, District 4 is a valuable investment of the city government for its public health system.
“This is a manifestation of how important public health is for us. We can say that we have come full circle in addressing this pandemic. From testing, isolating, vaccinating, and now storing supplies of vaccines for longer shelf life,” she said in a statement.
The new 105 square meters QC Cold Room and Storage Facility is equipped with a medical-grade walk-in freezer consisting of seven units at 5.0 horsepower, and one unit at 3.0 horsepower Wall Mounted Unit Coolers that is capable of storing at a temperature of two to eight degrees Celsius.
The freezers also have the capability to store at negative temperature provision to cool and store Covid-19 vaccines such as Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Sinovac.
The room is equipped with digital temperature control and monitoring that is connected to an alarm system.
This is to ensure the safety and quality of medicines and vaccines as the alarms will go off once the temperature goes up or down from the temperature it has been set.
The facility is also provisioned with chest-type freezers that will provide more storage space particularly for medicines that require below zero temperature storage.
Belmonte said the facility can accommodate approximately 20,000 vials in Ultra-Low Freezers which is at -60 to - 80 degrees Celsius, 10,000 vials in Chest Type Freezers that can store at -15 to -25 degrees Celsius, and 100,000 to 500,000 vials inside the cold storage at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius, depending on the vial size.
She added that the newly inaugurated facility is the largest cold room and storage facility that is under the management and control of a local government.
Currently, the city government is in partnership with Zuellig Pharma for the storage and logistics of its Covid-19 vaccines.
By the end of November, the city government is expected to have transferred some Covid-19 supplies to the QC Cold Room and Storage Facility.
QC Tax Force Vax to Normal Adviser Joseph Juico assured that the facility has been created in accordance with the necessary requirements for vaccines and medicines.
“UNICEF provided technical support to ensure that the equipment complies with the requirements fit for vaccine storage. From there, the City Engineering Department and City Architect Department focused its efforts in creating a medical-grade facility which can store medical requirements for long periods of time,” Juico said.
Dr. Esperanza Arias, City Health Department chief, said the new facility will help boost the city’s health system.
“This will greatly help us in storing the necessary vaccines including those that are part of the regular immunization programs of the Department of Health. While we have reached our target population already, the work in addressing Covid-19 does not stop until everyone eligible has been vaccinated, hence, we will continuously need a storage facility,” she said.
Arias added that in the future, the facility will also help the city prepare for any future emergencies or disasters due to emerging and re-emerging diseases with outbreak potential. (PNA)
