Pfizer vaccine's -70 degree storage norm tough for most nations: V K Paul

Limited number of doses would not be enough to meet India's demand, adds Niti Aayog member

As the national committee on covid vaccine firms up the national scheme for vaccine distribution and evaluates the available vaccine options, the government feels that not only do the cold chain requirements for Pfizer’s candidate pose a major challenge, its limited number of doses would not be enough to meet India’s demand. 

“In our knowledge there is only one vaccine that needs to be kept in -70 to -80 degree Celsius temperature which will be difficult for all countries which make it difficult to scale up...We are discussing this as the Pfizer’s vaccine will not be available to us for a few months,” said V K Paul, member-health, Niti Aayog and chairman of the committee on vaccine administration.  

Paul said that the other five candidates require a much easier platform and would have enough doses available to meet the country’s requirement. “However, if Pfizer is the one then we will devise our strategy accordingly.” 

Among the five, Russian Sputnik V vaccine is likely to start its phase two and three trials next week.  Serum Institute’s Oxford-AstraZeneca and Bharat Biotech’s vaccine are in phase three trials. Zydus Cadila’s vaccine has completed the phase two trials and is awaiting results. Biological E is in the early stage of trials. “We are very hopeful about these five options...One or more of them will give us some success,” Paul added. 

 

US drug-maker Pfizer has reported that its vaccine BNT162b2, has been more than 90 per cent effective in late-stage trials. The vaccine developed with German biotech firm BioNTech will be reviewed by the US Food and Drug Administration this month.

Health secretary Rajesh Bhushan also said that a document for vaccine distribution and priority individuals who would get access first is in final stages and has been shared with the state governments. The finer details have been chalked out by the national committee on vaccine. 

Danger mark in Delhi

Government said that the situation in Delhi is worrying and could pose a threat to lives and livelihood. Health ministry data showed that testing in Delhi after increasing significantly from June-July to August-September plateaued in October-November. “This means that a large number of cases went undetected,” Bhushan said.

Going forward, the government wants to ensure that there is a right mix of RT-PCR and rapid antigen test in favour of the former to almost doubling the total testing capacity in the national capital. Bhushan said that the total number of tests have to be doubled from almost 60,000 to 120,000 in Delhi. 

Government had laid out action points to control the pandemic situation in Delhi yesterday following a meeting held by the home minister along with the health ministry, Lieutenant General of Delhi and the Delhi government. 

 

The ICU bed capacity from around 3,500 currently will be increased to 6,000 within the week in the capital city. “We feel if we can ramp up ICU capacity by 80 per cent we will be in the safe zone,” Paul added. 

Teams for house to house surveillance have also been doubled to almost 7,000- 8,000 to help in tracing and tracking active cases in containment zones

Daily new cases in Delhi had peaked at over 3,600 in June and then to more than 4,300 in September. In its third peak Delhi has witnessed over 7,000 daily cases. 

Looking at a larger picture Paul said that the vaccine is just one of the many tools to tackle pandemic. “Vaccine is a game changer but it is not the only thing which will help in ending the pandemic.”