San Juan City in talks with cold chain facilities as it awaits vaccines

The San Juan City government is now in talks with private cold chain facilities as it prepares for the possible delivery of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, which must be stored in ultra-low temperature freezers that maintain a temperature of -70 degrees Celsius.

“Kami po ay sinabihan ng national government na dito raw po sa Metro Manila ay posibleng Pfizer po ang ilaan sa atin ng pamahalaang nasyonal. Now if that happens, kinakailangan ho meron ho tayong storage facility and transit facilities that will be enough for -70 degrees. Sa ngayon, meron na ho tayong mga kausap na tutulong po sa atin na cold chain facility na below -70 degrees,” Mayor Francis Zamora told GMA News on Monday.

He added that the AstraZeneca vaccines that the local government will purchase can be stored in the city’s warehouse, where other vaccines are stored, as they only require a storage temperature of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius.

The San Juan city government is purchasing 100,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, will be adequate for 50,000 residents.

The figures do not include the vaccines that will be coming form the national government.

As of Monday, more than 14,000 have registered to be vaccinated. — BM, GMA News