DURBAN - ESKOM is currently experiencing a deterioration in generation capacity because of the high evening peaks of electricity usage as the country enters winter.
This begged the question as to whether load shedding would compromise the country’s Covid-19 vaccines as they have to be stored at specific temperatures to ensure their efficacy.
Vaccines are sensitive to either freezing temperatures or light, and some to heat. Once exposed to any of these conditions they lose their potency, or its ability to protect the vaccinated individual against viruses.
According to the Pfizer website, Pfizer vaccines storage temperature is –70ºC ±10ºC.
Pfizer’s vaccines can be stored using any of these options: in ultra-low-temperature freezers, where the vaccine’s shelf life is up six months; in a Pfizer thermal shipper, where doses are stored in temporary units that need to be recharged with dry ice every five days for a period of 30 days; and refrigerators can also be used and set to 2ºC-8ºC.
On the other hand, the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that the Johnson and Johnson vaccine should be stored at between 2°C and 8°C. The vaccine is sensitive to light and should never be frozen. The World Health Organization (WHO) set a coronavirus vaccine cold chain.
“The cold chain refers to maintaining a product’s quality from the time of manufacture until the point of administration by ensuring that vaccines are stored and transported within the recommended temperature ranges,” said the WHO.
Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize this week assured the country that load shedding did not pose much of a threat to the cold chain of the vaccine in terms of storage.
“There is no way that the cold chain can be broken. We have made alternative and contingency arrangements to maintain the cold chain,” he said.
Mkhize said the only challenge load shedding caused was the slow reception of the electronic vaccination data system (EVDS). As a back-up, people are registered manually.
EVDS is used to register people who want to vaccinate against the coronavirus. After registration, the system sends an SMS of the date and venue to the person who registered.
“All hospitals, community health centres and big clinics have generators which are automated to kick in whenever there is load shedding to avoid interruption on the delivery of health services, so vaccines will also not be affected by load shedding in terms of cold chain management,” said provincial health spokesperson Ntokozo Maphisa.
“The only area which will be impacted by load shedding is the EVDS where we use computers that are connected to electricity. However, vaccinations will continue since there is a manual system in place and the information will be captured later on.”
Hospitals have also taken extra precautions.
“Netcare hospitals throughout the country are fully equipped to ensure minimal disruption in the event of possible power outages. The majority of these hospitals have dual redundancy systems (double power back-up systems) in place, which means that the activities can continue as usual,” said Jacques du Plessis, managing director of Netcare’s hospital division.
Lara Richards, marketing and communications co-ordinator at Life Entabeni Hospital, said: “Life Entabeni Hospital vaccination site is prepared for possible load shedding. We have generators in place which are tested weekly to ensure that operations are not disturbed. Cold storage of the vaccines will be preserved on the same generator supply,” she said.
Eskom recently issued a statement on load shedding: “Due to the winter period demand, load shedding will most likely begin between 5pm and 10pm.”
The statement also indicated that load shedding was being suspended after it began on Sunday. The suspension came after Eskom teams returned seven generation units to service.
Daily News