The province of Rizal now has its own cold storage facility for different kinds of vaccines, the provincial government announced on Wednesday, June 1.
The facility was provided to the provincial government of Rizal by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), an international non-government organization (INGO), in cooperation with the government of Japan.
The facility will guarantee the province's vaccine supply and make the Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 vaccines more accessible.
The 40-cubic meter installation has a storage capacity of around 10,000 liters worth of vaccines.
A generator set was also included to ensure the facility will remain operational in case power interruptions and outages occur.
The provincial government said this will be beneficial to continue providing public health services to people in the province.
"Lalong makakapagpabuti at makakapagpabilis ito ng ating vaccination process dahil ngayon ay mayroon na tayong paglalagyan ng iba't-ibang klase ng bakuna na kakailanganin ng lalawigan may pandemya man o wala (Now that we have a storage facility for different kinds of vaccines that our province needs, regardless of a pandemic, our vaccination process will be swifter, and more efficient)," the provincial government said.
According to the Department of Health (DOH), “specific temperatures are required during the storage and distribution of the vaccines in order to maintain efficacy and safety.”
The walk-in cold storage facility is among those located in Region 4A or Calabarzon.
Another facility is the First Pioneer Distribution Center of UNILAB located in Biñan City, Laguna. It can house up to five million doses of vaccines at a time, maintaining them at temperatures around two to eight degrees centigrade.