Vaccine refrigerators supported by Japan and UNICEF arrive to Vietnam

300 vaccine refrigerators funded by the government of Japan have arrived in Vietnam

A third of these refrigerators arrived in Ho Chi Minh City Port, while the other 200 have arrived in Haiphong Port in September.

The refrigerators will be delivered to 300 provincial and district health facilities in Vietnam, where they will be used to store COVID-19 vaccines. The delivery is a part of UNICEF’s ongoing support to improve cold chain systems for the nationwide vaccination campaign.

The government of Japan, a long-time partner to UNICEF Vietnam, has been supporting the country to realise children’s rights, especially during emergencies and crisss. “This support is aimed at delivering vaccines to each and every person in all corners of Vietnam, which will complement the efforts of the COVAX Facility. Japan will continue to extend support to the Vietnam to deploy vaccines to every person in the country with a view to containing COVID-19 as quickly as possible”, said Takio Yamada, Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam.

As part of the support to improve capacity of the health and immunisation systems to efficiently and effectively administer vaccines, UNICEF has worked with the Ministry of Health to assess cold chain capacity, identifying the needs for fridges, freezers, and refrigerated trucks for the safe transportation and storage of vaccines.

“The support from Japan will help to ensure the cold chain capacity, which is crucial for the safe rollout of vaccinations and immunisations”, said Rana Flowers, UNICEF representative. “We are delighted to work with the government of Japan in this important activity.”

The shipments brought the specially produced vaccine refrigerator TCW 80 AC, manufactured by B Medical in Luxembourg with green technology for very low power consumption and environmental sustainability. the fridges can maintain cold conditions for vaccines that must be stored at a temperature range of 2-8˚C, and are even capable of holding the temperature when power failure occur for up to 72 hours. All current COVID-19 vaccines administered in Vietnam require this temperature range.

With a storage capacity of 80.5 L, the refrigerators will be able to store vaccines doses for an entire day of inoculations. This model is supplied and equipped with an integrated remote temperature monitoring device with real-time alerts for the continuous monitoring of the sensitive vaccines. In case of a temperature deviation, it immediately sends a notification to the predefined person(s) in charge. The temperature status can also be monitored from a distance through an online web portal. The delivery came with one set of spare parts for every ten refrigerators.

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