Bacolod readies ultralow cold storage for Pfizer vax

BACOLOD City – The city government is readying an ultralow cold storage facility for the expected arrival of Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus disease 2019 ( COVID- 19) vaccines from the national government.

This is located alongside the cold room, where the City Health Office stores

Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines, beside the Bacolod Government Center.

City Administrator Em Ang, executive director of the Emergency Operations Center- Task Force (EOC-TF), said a joint team from the Department of Health (DOH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in Western Visayas inspected the ultralow temperature (ULT) freezers and other equipment in the cold chain facility.

“Bacolod City will receive 5,850 doses of Pfizer vaccine as soon as the inspection is completed and approved,” Ang said in a Facebook post.

The ULT freezers can store up to 40,000 doses of Pfizer jabs at a temperature of -70 degrees to -80 degrees Celsius as well as cold chain storage for other vaccine brands with the required temperature of -25 degrees to -30 degrees Celsius.

Ang said the DOH cold chain technician and pharmacists, and the FDA regulation officers also inspected the infrastructure to ensure its capability to maintain the ambiance t emperature requirement.

Since March, the city government has been receiving both Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines now totaling 75,740 doses.

As of June 22, some 54,849 doses of COVID- 19 vaccine have been administered to residents.