Japan Donates 12 Ultra-Modern Deep Freezers to Kenya for Storage of COVID-19 Vaccines

The Japanese government has donated 12 ultra-modern deep freezers to Kenya to facilitate the safe storage of COVID-19 vaccines.

The freezers with a capacity of up to three million doses were handed to Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe on Tuesday. Kagwe said the cold chain equipment will facilitate the storage of vaccines at temperatures of up to -70 degrees.

Three of the freezers will be placed at the central vaccine stores in Kitengala while the remaining will be distributed to the nine regional stores in the country.

“From the regional stores, these vaccines will be transported to selected vaccination posts at temperatures of plus 2 to plus 8 degrees as its common with other vaccines,” Kagwe said.

“We are extremely thankful to the Japanese government for this donation which will enable us to store vaccines safely to vaccinate as many people as possible.”

Kenya currently has AstraZeneca, Johnson &Johnson, and Moderna vaccines and is expecting to receive the Pfizer vaccine, which requires extremely cold temperatures for storage.

“Pfizer will be stocked at facilities that can vaccinate 100 people per day,” said Kagwe.

He added: “The quality and success of our vaccination program is dependent on the integrity of our cold chain. This places a huge responsibility on our officers at the National and County level to ensure these vaccines are administered as soon as possible to avoid loss of potency.”

United Postal Services Foundation donated 15 special insulated softboxes to ease the transportation of the vaccines to all the regional stores.