Webinar: A-Z of Covid-19 vaccines
Stringent checks here keep cold chain intact: Experts
Assurance comes after Govt announcement of plans to roll out Covid-19 vaccines in S'pore
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(From left) Mr Ashish Pal, managing director for Merck Sharp & Dohme in Singapore and Malaysia; Associate Professor Lim Poh Lian, director of the high-level isolation unit at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases; Professor Ooi Eng Eong from Duke-NUS Medical School; and The Straits Times' senior health correspondent Salma Khalik at the webinar yesterday.
PHOTO: SHINTARO TAY
A critical part of the distribution of the temperature-sensitive Covid-19 vaccines made by Pfizer and BioNTech, as well as Moderna, is to ensure that a specified temperature range is maintained.
In Singapore, stringent checks are in place to ensure the cold chain for vaccines is not compromised and that the vaccines remain safe and effective, experts said yesterday during a Straits Times webinar on Covid-19 vaccination.
Their assurance comes after the Government announced on Monday its plans to roll out Covid-19 vaccines in Singapore soon, including the Pfizer-BioNTech shot which has been approved by the Health Sciences Authority.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is already being administered in Britain and the United States, while Canada and Mexico have authorised its use.
Singapore administers all manner of vaccines daily, and "the cold chain management is very much a part of the normal process", said Associate Professor Lim Poh Lian, a member of an expert committee on Covid-19 vaccination appointed by the Health Ministry.
For instance, the Traveller's Health and Vaccination Clinic at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, which Prof Lim heads, has temperature-controlled refrigerators that record and trigger an alarm over any deviation from prescribed temperatures.
Such deviations can result from the fridge breaking down or the electricity going off, but there will be a record of it, said Prof Lim, adding that the clinic has thrown away vaccines before, when fridges broke down.
"That's part of the commitment that we make to safety and quality."
She also said there is no reason to think it would be any different for Covid-19 vaccines, since so much attention is being paid to them.
Another speaker at the webinar was Mr Ashish Pal, managing director for pharmaceutical company Merck Sharp & Dohme in Singapore and Malaysia.
He noted that different vaccines have different temperature requirements, and their safety and efficacy can be compromised if there is any fluctuation in temperature during the transport process leading up to the administering of the shot.
"If you look at some of the recently approved products, companies have done a tremendous amount of work to ensure that the robustness of the distribution process is intact," said Mr Pal.
"So there are very clear checks and balances along the way to ensure there is no compromise on the storage conditions alongside transportation conditions," he said.
LIKE PREPARING FOR PSLE
SAFE AND EFFECTIVE
SECURING THE COLD CHAIN
