Vaccine to be preserved in EPI storage
Covid-19 vaccine doses gifted by India will be preserved in the cold storage of the capital's Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI).
The authorities concerned are now working tirelessly to ensure all the arrangements as only a few hours left before the arrival of the vaccine doses.
While visiting the EPI Cold Storage in Tejgaon area around 2:30pm today, some four workers were seen to wash and wipe the facility.
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One of them told The Business Standard that they generally work for an organisation named "Pacific." Now they are working for EPI in contract.
"Vaccines will be stored in these cold rooms after importing from India. That's why we're cleaning" he said.
Bangladesh will receive some 20 lakh doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from India as a gift on Thursday.
Earlier on Tuesday morning, Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof ABM Khurshid Alam told the media that the government had prepared three alternative storages for preserving the coronavirus vaccines.
"EPI's headquarters, EPI repository at Tejgaon and Cental Medical Store Dept (CMSD) have been prepared to store the vaccines," he said.
According to the health directorate, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine needs to be preserved in the walk-in cooler. Some 29 districts of the country already have such facilities and other 18 districts are making arrangements.
Besides, there are ILRs in each district and upazila of the country. The vaccines will be stored in those ILRs and transported on separate frozen boxes.
