Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam has received 300 vaccinerefrigerators funded by the Government of Japan through UNICEF, ofwhich 100 refrigerators have arrived in Ho Chi Minh City Port and another 200 inHai Phong Port, UNICEF Vietnam announced on October 1.

The refrigerators will be delivered to 300 provincial anddistrict health facilities in Vietnam, where they will store COVID-19 vaccinesfor vaccination days, it said in a statement. The delivery is a part ofUNICEF’s ongoing support to improve cold chain systems for Vietnam’s COVID-19vaccination campaign.

The Government of Japan has been supporting Vietnam torealise children’s rights, especially during emergency situation and crisis.

“This support is aimed at delivering vaccines to each andevery person in all corners of Vietnam, which will complement efforts of theCOVAX Facility,” said Takio Yamada, the Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam. “Japanwill continue to extend support to the Vietnamese efforts to deploy vaccines toevery person in the country with a view to containing COVID-19 as quickly aspossible.”

As part of the support to improve the capacity of the healthand immunisation systems to efficiently and effectively administer COVID-19vaccines, UNICEF has worked with the Ministry of Health to assess ‘cold chain’capacity identifying the needs for fridges, freezers, refrigerator trucks andcold boxes for the safe transportation and storage of vaccines.

“Support from the Government of Japan will help to ensurethe cold chain capacity, which is crucial for the safe rollout of COVID-19vaccination and for routine immunisation”, said Rana Flowers, UNICEFRepresentative.

This shipment brings the specially produced Vaccinerefrigerator TCW 80 AC, manufactured by B Medical in Luxembourg with greentechnology for very low power consumption and environmentally sustainability,which can maintain cold conditions for vaccines that must be stored at atemperature range of 2˚C to 8˚C, even when power failure occurs for up to 72hours.

All of the current COVID-19 vaccines administered in Vietnamrequire this temperature range at the vaccination sites.

With a storage capacity of 80.5 L, the refrigerators will beable to store vaccines doses for vaccination days. This model is supplied withan integrated remote temperature monitoring device with a real-time alert forthe continuous monitoring of sensitive vaccines. In case of a temperaturedeviation, it immediately sends a notification to the predefined person(s) incharge.

The temperature status can also be monitored from a distancethrough an online web portal. The delivery came with one set of spare parts forevery ten refrigerators./.