With Nepal set to receive six million doses of Pfizer-BioNtech Covid-19 vaccine, which the government procured from the US, authorities have started preparations to set up ultra-cold storage facilities for the jabs.

Officials said they are working to set up facilities that can store at least 1.5 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at a time.

“We have received assurances from aid agencies—UNICEF, USAID and FHI—that they would provide an ultra cold freezer which can store vaccines in up to minus 80 degrees Celsius,” Upendra Dhungana, chief of the Logistic Management Section under the Department of Health Services, told the Post. “We are also working to purchase some freezers on our own.”

Currently, the government storage can store only 100,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine in minus 80 degrees Celsius.

It was last week that a Cabinet meeting had approved a proposal of the Health Ministry to procure 6 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine from the US through a non-disclosure agreement.

The Pfizer-BioNtech Covid-19 vaccine needs to be stored at minus 80 degrees Celsius at the central storage and can be stored in normal temperatures (2 to 8 degree Celsius) for up to 31 days, officials said.

However, after mixing the vaccine with diluent, the vaccine can be used for only up to six hours. Each vial of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine contains six doses.

Earlier, UNICEF had provided four ultra cold freezers with a combined storage capacity of around 100,000 doses. The 100,620 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine provided to Nepal by the US through COVAX have been stored in the freezers.

“Each ultra cold freezer will have the capacity to store around 200,000 doses,” said Badebabu Thapa, an official at the Logistic Management Section. “We have to ready the vaccine storage before the vaccines arrive.”

UNICEF has assured to provide four ultra cold freezers and officials expect additional four from the USAID and FHI-360.

Health Ministry officials said that they expect that the vaccine manufacturing company would start delivering the jabs from mid-December.

“We have a target to administer Covid-19 vaccine to all eligible citizens,” said Dr Shyam Raj Upreti, coordinator of Covid-19 Vaccine Advisory Committee. “For that vaccine doses have been arranged and the authorities should do all to achieve the target.”

The government has decided to inoculate all eligible citizens by mid-April next year.

Nepal needs to vaccinate around 78 percent of its 30 million population—or around 25 million people, as per the government’s new plan that also includes those aged between 12 and 18 years. The government earlier had planned to vaccinate only those aged 15 years and above.

Since around 4-5 million Nepalis are said to be living abroad, the government needs to vaccinate around 19-20 million people. For this, the country needs a little over 40 million doses of double-shot vaccines.

Nepal so far has received 22,571,810 doses of Covid-19 vaccines–Vero Cell, AstraZeneca, Janssen and Pfizer-BioNTech.

Meanwhile, health authorities started administering the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to immunocompromised people including children above 12 years old from 24 hospitals throughout the country from Sunday.

According to Sagar Dahal, chief of the National Immunisation Programme, the vaccine is being administered to people suffering from renal failure, those taking dialysis treatments, people taking medicines after organ transplantation, cancer patients and those suffering from lung diseases.

Likewise, those suffering from high blood pressure and taking medicines, people suffering from diabetes, heart ailments and those with compromised immunity due to various reasons including HIV/AIDS can take the Pfizer shots.

In Kathmandu Valley, the vaccine is being administered at Bir Hospital, Army hospital, Civil Hospital, Patan Hospital, Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital, Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, Shahid Gangalal National Heart Centre and Shahid Dharmabhakta National Transplant Centre Bhaktapur.

The vaccine is also administered at BP Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital in Bharatpur and Dhulikhel Hospital in Kavre, targeting the people of Bagmati Province.

In Province 1, BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan; Mechi Zonal Hospital, Jhapa; and Koshi Hospital provided the jabs. Gajendra Narayan Singh Hospital, Janakpur Hospital, and Narayani Hospital of Province 2, also administered the vaccine.

In Gandaki Province, the vaccine was administered at Gandaki Academy of Health Sciences, and Dhaulagiri Hospital in Baglung. In Province 5, Lumbini Provincial Hospital, Butwal, Rapti Academy of Health Sciences, Dang, and Bheri Hospital, Banke are administering the vaccine.

In Karnali Province, the vaccine was administered at Province Hospital, Surkhet, and in Sudurpaschim Province, Seti Provincial Hospital, Dhangadhi and Dadeldhura Hospital are providing the vaccine.

“We will administer the vaccine from the designated hospitals for one week,” said Dahal. “Campaign could be stopped ahead of schedule if the allocated doses run out early.”

The Pfizer-BioNtech Covid-19 vaccine is the mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccine being used in Nepal. The vaccine developed jointly by the US-based Pfizer and the German firm Biontech uses a copy of a molecule called messenger RNA (mRNA) to produce an immune response.

It is said that the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine was 95 percent effective at preventing laboratory-confirmed infection with the coronavirus.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was also highly effective at preventing laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 infection in adolescents between 12-15 years old, and the immune response in these adolescents was at least as strong as the immune response in 16-25-year-olds in clinical trials.

“Evidence shows mRNA Covid-19 vaccines offer similar protection in real-world conditions as they have in clinical trial settings—reducing the risk of Covid-19, including severe illness by 90 percent or more, among people who are fully vaccinated,” the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on its website.

As of Saturday, 7,541,267 people (24.8 percent of the total population have been fully vaccinated, according to the Health Ministry.