Covid vaccines in India required to be stored within 2-8 deg C range: Govt

COVID-19 vaccines, currently being used in the country, are required to be stored within the temperature range of two to eight degrees Celsius, Union Minister Bharati Pravin Pawar informed Lok Sabha on Friday.

In a written reply, the minister of state for health also said that there are 296 walk-in coolers and 57,640 ice-lined refrigerators in the country.

These are sufficient to meet the vaccine requirement of both COVID-19 vaccination as well as routine immunisation, Pawar said.

To a question on whether the government has made any assessment that the existing cold storage facility is sufficient to store anti-Covid vaccines, she said the National Cold Chain Management Information System is a digital database of cold chain equipment supplied to states and union territories.

"The cold chain space requirement is assessed using this database to strengthen additional cold chain space required for storing Covid vaccine over and above the cold chain space required for storing routine immunisation vaccines at temperature range of two degrees Celsius to eight degrees Celsius and at temperature range of -15 to -25 degrees Celsius," the minister said.