The Centre has begun making logistical arrangements for the procurement, storage and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, once they become available.
Several experimental vaccines against the disease have almost reached the late-stage trials.
The government has already begun identifying both government and private facilities for creating hubs of vaccine storage and the focus is on maintaining cold storage.
It may be mentioned here that most vaccines require to be stored and distributed at a fixed temperature, failing which the vaccine becomes ineffective.
It may further be mentioned here that under the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19, various subgroups are looking into various aspects of vaccine development, procurement and distribution, including one that looks at cold chain requirements.
In a recent announcement, the union health minister Harsh Vardhan informed that the government was looking at procuring and utilizing about 400-500 million vaccine doses, covering about 200-250 million people.
There are around 27,000 vaccine storage centres across all 700 plus districts in India, which are connected through eVIN.
There are at least 50,000 temperature loggers to monitor storage temperatures as accurately as possible for at least 40,000 frontline workers to manage logistics.