MUMBAI: Over 1.5 crore Covid-19
vaccine
doses can be stored at a time at the BMC’s new
vaccination storage
facility in Kanjurmarg (east). The final count, though, may depend on the temperature that needs to be maintained for a particular brand of vaccine.
The facility, which opened on April 7, has come up on the first floor of the local health centre on a Rs 4.5 crore budget.
It has two walk-in coolers maintained between two degrees Celsius and eight degrees Celsius. This is where the Covid vaccines
Covishield and
Covaxin are stored at the moment.
“At a conservative estimate, we can store 60 lakh doses in each of the two walk-in coolers, but some experts believe we can even store 90 lakh each,” said additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani.
The lone walk-in freezer here, maintained between -25 degrees Celsius and -15 degrees Celsius, will possibly house the Russian Sputnik V vaccine that the BMC is planning to import shortly. It needs to be stored at -17 degrees Celsius.
“As we don't know the packaging dimensions of the Sputnik vaccine, we are unable to assess how many can be stored in the walk-in freezer, but we believe we have adequate space,” said a BMC public health official.
But it should also be able to store lakhs of doses.
Earlier in the week, municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said the BMC was in the process of importing a crore doses of Sputnik V.
The BMC has earmarked Rs 700 crore to buy Covid vaccines.