La Niña is here! And yes, these complex weather patterns that occur in the Pacific Ocean mean near-normal to above-normal rainfall conditions are expected in the next couple of months.
Consequently, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (PAG-ASA) also recently announced the end of habagat or Southwest Monsoon, indicating that the Philippines is now transitioning towards the amihan or Norwest Moonsoon season. Amihan means more rains in the eastern portion of the country.
Apart from the heavy downpours, several tropical cyclones are also expected to enter in the coming months until the first quarter of 2022. And some of them are strong enough to damage powerlines.
For healthcare facilities, particularly those storing the much-needed COVID-19 vaccines, having a reliable power supply is critical amid the country’s most extensive vaccination campaign yet.
Since COVID-19 vaccines have specific storage temperatures to avoid spoilage, some require 2°C to 8°C and -20°C. In comparison, others need to be stored in ultracold facilities that can maintain -70°C, such as Pfizer and BioNTech.
Last month, the Department of Health (DOH) confirmed that some 12,970 COVID-19 vaccine doses were wasted mainly due to temperature’ excursions.’ The wastage includes the damaged vaccines during a fire incident in South Cotabato and those spoiled after being left without electricity for more than two days in North Cotabato.
Protecting Every Dose
For Vertiv, a global provider of critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions, the Philippines can still ensure that its storage facilities are maintained despite remaining among the topmost vulnerable countries to natural disasters, resulting in power outages.
“When a power outage occurs, it may put the limited vaccine supply at risk and could be disastrous at the critical stage in our country’s fight against COVID-29. Generators might not also be enough to ensure reliable power for these critical facilities since there is a transfer time involved in switching from the primary power source to the backup generator,” said Pamela Albar, Associate Director, Channels Enterprise, Vertiv Philippines.
Vertiv aims to support the health authorities and storage facilities via its selection of full-featured and cost-effective power solutions to aid in the country’s vaccination campaign. For instance, with its Liebert® GXT5 UPS, vaccine sites and storage facilities are given vaccine protection solutions as it provides premium power outage protection for multiple ultra-low temperature freezers.
Vertiv™ Liebert® GXT5 UPS features an online double conversion technology which means giving your storage the highest degree of protection. Using a single Liebert GXT5, multiple ultra-low temperature freezers, including upright, portable, and under-the-counter models, can be fully isolated from raw utility power, protecting the freezers from power surges, brownouts and blackouts that could jeopardize the vaccines.
Why use UPS for storage facilities?
Shifting from the primary power source to the backup generator has a transfer time in which that lag can negatively affect the vaccine freezer’s operations. But with Liebert GXT5 UPS, zero transfer time to batteries is guaranteed.
Vaccine storage facilities’ temperature can be continuously protected by filling any transfer time gap between the primary source and the backup generator. No backup generator? No problem. An external battery connector is available for extended outage protection in case generators are faulty or unavailable.
As resilient as every healthcare professional, Liebert GXT5 UPS can work 24/7 to safeguard every vaccine inside the storage. That is why monitoring its battery is crucial work for facility personnel. The good thing is its system performance, and battery health can be observed both remotely and locally through web browsers. Also, an alarm notification alerts the staff of any issue through email and text messages.
Vertiv helps the country’s healthcare system by eliminating the added complexity to the current healthcare situation. Liebert GXT5 UPS is a plug-and-play system that is easy to install and configure. Also, considering space allocation is the least priority since its compact and flexible rack form can be mounted on the wall or simply on the floor.
Aside from Liebert GXT5, the company also offers Vertiv™ Edge UPS, a family of highly reliable, efficient, manageable, and flexible line-interactive sinewave UPSs, with models ranging from 500VA to 3000VA in 1U, 2U, 3U, mini-tower, rack tower, and rack-mount form factors. Vertiv Edge is also a cost-efficient choice for protecting the server and networking equipment, particularly since it has a high 0.9 power factor, controllable outlets, and extended runtime.
For Vertiv, every dose matters because every life matters. Give the COVID-19 vaccines the protection it deserves today. To learn more about how Vertiv supports the continuity of today’s vital applications, visit Vertiv.com.