Cold Chain is not a big problem in India:

Rumours are spread by the media in India and abroad that India is a big and poor country. How will it manage Cold Chain required for preserving the Vaccine? Is this misinformation aimed at creating panic? There are no easy answers. But India does not have this problem.

Requirement of Cold Chain:

It is true that all the vaccines Pfizer-BioNTech, Sputnik-V and Moderna require a temperature of anywhere between minus 18 degrees to minus 90 degrees Celsius, except for the vaccine being developed by Oxford University-AstraZeneca, which can be stored in normal household refrigerators with a temperature range of 2 degrees to 8 degrees Celsius.

As usual the media has being crying hoarse that poor India does not have capability of cold chain required for transportation of vaccine.

Cold Chain capability of India:

Actually India does have a cold chain capability to offer ultra-low cold temperatures, thanks to the infrastructure in place to transport the semen of bulls used for artificial insemination of cows across the country. For the record, the semen collected from bulls is transported at minus 196 degrees Celsius — much lower than the lowest temperature required for a Covid-19 vaccine, which is for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine candidate that needs to be stored between minus 60 degrees to minus 90 degrees Celsius.

The containers used for transporting the semen also have huge capacities, with a 35 litre container able to house 2,500 straws while a 48 litre one can accommodate 15,000 straws
Liquid nitrogen, which is inert, colourless, odourless, non corrosive, nonflammable and extremely cold, is produced by compressing and cooling the gas to below its boiling point, which is minus 195.79 degrees Celsius.

Liquid Nitrogen is also available in plenty from the fertiliser factories in India. The fact is that India is the world’s second largest producer and also as a by-product of liquid oxygen plants.

Be assured and do not worry. Vaccine will be distributed in India, flawlessly.