SRN Hosp to have multi-purpose store for coronavirus vaccines
Rs 2.44 crore sanctioned, Rs 1.22 crore released as first instalment
PRAYAGRAJ: A multipurpose store will be constructed at Moti Lal Nehru Medical College’s SRN Hospital here for the safe storage of the Covid-19 vaccine at a proper temperature when it becomes available, officials at the medical college said. The state government has approved over Rs 2.44 crore for this modern store and released Rs 1.22 crore as the first instalment for the construction on priority. The target is to complete the construction of the building in three months.
The plan was to use this store for safekeeping medicines and surgical items, besides Covid-19 and other vaccines that required a specific temperature, said MLNMC principal Dr SP Singh. This facility would prove valuable even after the Covid-19 threat passed, he added.
An official conveyed the state government’s administrative and financial sanction of the multi-purpose store to director general (Medical Education and Training) on December 7. A copy of the letter has also been sent to the principal of MLNMC. This multipurpose store at SRN Hospital is in addition to a Covid-19 vaccine storage facility being developed at the Tej Bahadur Sapru (Beli) Hospital, where an existing meeting hall is being modified, using Rs 11.20 lakh received from the state government. This facility would house around 50 ice-lined refrigerators (ILR) capable of highly safe vaccine storage with proper power backup. ILRs are equipped with effective polyurethane foam (PUF) insulation that ensures long hold-over time in case of power failure.
As the Covid-19 vaccine trials in the country are at a crucial stage, administrative officials are getting a clearer picture of the vaccination drive that they would need to undertake to safeguard people from the SarsCov-2 virus. The officials said the vaccines would arrive in two phases for the first batch of people that would comprise frontline medical and health workers. Both the phases would have doses of the vaccine for the same batch of people and would be administered at a gap of a fixed number days.
Prayagraj district magistrate Bhanu Chandra Goswami said the work of uploading the names of doctors and paramedical staff of government and private hospitals on the designated portal was underway. He added that so far 672 private hospitals out of the total registered 1,235 private hospitals had provided the names and details of their staff. Instructions had been given to the district immunisation officer to get the details from the remaining private hospitals within the next two days and complete the uploading process at the earliest, he said.