High-tech freezer goes the extra mile to deliver vaccines
Today is a special day for Meme Linea Absalom: The 55-year-old received her first Covid-19 vaccination at the Onandjokwe Intermediate Hospital near Ondangwa. “I just like to feel safe, and the vaccination means that I can be safe,” she said.The vaccine that she received came a long way, as the hospital is located about 800 kilometres north of Windhoek. For health facilities like this, the number of daily vaccinations fluctuates. Sometimes the hospital requests as few as 10 vials per order.
Moreover, the Covid-19 vaccine by Pfizer-BioNtech must be continually kept at temperatures between -60 and -80 degrees Celsius - a challenge in Namibia, where the vaccines need to reach clinics that are located in remote areas far from the medical cold storage in the capital.
The solution came with the introduction of small portable ultra-low-temperature freezers that look like high-tech camping cooler boxes. They are battery-powered and can maintain the required ultra-low temperature over many hours – the ideal means of transport for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Meme Linea’s vaccine arrived at her hospital with one of the four portable ultra-low-temperature freezers funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through its Right-to-Care Equip project for the country’s Ministry of Health and Social Services. One of these state-of-the-art portable medical freezer units costs nearly N$250 000.
Partnering with NamPost, the USAID Global Health Supply Chain Program (GHSC-PSM) is responsible for the logistics to ensure the cold chain is not broken until the vaccine reaches its destination, even to the farthest reaches of the country.
As soon as a health facility orders a batch of vaccine vials, NamPost staff turn on one of the mobile freezers to reach ultra-cold temperature within three to four hours.
“Then you have to be very quick,” says NamPost driver Stanley /Uirab. “I have to get the freezer from the storage room to the car within seconds and immediately connect it to the battery.”
Only when the vaccine has safely arrived and is ready to be administered into the arm of a Namibian, Stanley can confidently say “mission accomplished”.
“The United States government has supported Namibia’s fight against Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020,” said USAID Country Representative, Dr McDonald Homer.
USAID together with the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and other agencies such as the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has so far invested about US$20 million (approx. N$350 million) in Namibia’s Covid response.
Thanks to the small mobile ultra-low-temperature freezers that go the last mile to ensure safe vaccine delivery, Linea Absolom will get her second Covid shot in a few weeks’ time. “It’s just 40 km from my village to Onandjokwe hospital. I have to come back and get the second dose. I know the vaccines are professionally handled, safe and reduce the risk of hospitalization and death due to Covid infection.”