Reliable Electricity for Vaccination Centers
The biggest COVID-19 vaccination drive that involves 1.2 billion people in four main distribution points and 37 state vaccine storage areas, India has officially kicked off what the world believes to be the largest vaccination in the history of mankind. To create a fair and equal vaccine distribution to every family in the country, highly reliable health care facilities is a must as they will be the millions of people’s first point contact for their healthcare needs.
This immunization program’s success largely depends on a sustainable and reliable cold chain, and fortunately, most of the country’s health centers are already equipped with the required cold chain facilities to store the vaccine vials in until they are ready to be administered.
However, despite the importance of such centers, many healthcare centers have to do without reliable electricity, and this, in turn, will significantly decelerate the delivery of vaccines into the remote areas. In fact, at least 25% of rural sub-centers and 4% of rural primary health centers are in need of reliable power supply as revealed by the Rural Health Statistics from 2018 to 2019.
This has caused roughly 25% of vaccine supply for remote areas to be spoiled before they are put in use, thus costing the country millions of dollars’ worth of wasted vaccines each year. To ensure that this will not be the case for the incoming COVID-19 vaccines, the government should start assessing their existing infrastructure in the rural locations, fix the weak and defective cold chain links, and address energy efficiency to improve the overall healthcare systems in the remote areas.
In addition, the government should take into consideration the electrification of these health centers with solar PV not only for the administration of COVID-19 vaccines to the entire population but also for the security and improvement of critical healthcare in the future, both in the cities and in the rural locations.
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