BMC setting up new COVID-19 vaccine storage facility in Mumbai

The BMC has identified its own five-storey building at Kanjurmarg in the eastern suburbs for the new COVID-19 vaccine storage facility, which will be set up on its first floor, another civic official said.

PTI

Dec 9, 2020 / 08:54 PM IST

BMC, Mumbai

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is setting up a new COVID-19 vaccine storage facility at one its buildings in Kanjurmarg area here, officials said on Wednesday.

The new vaccine storage facility will be in addition to the existing cold storage facilities at four civic-run hospitals in the city, BMC's additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani told PTI.

The BMC has identified its own five-storey building at Kanjurmarg in the eastern suburbs for the new COVID-19 vaccine storage facility, which will be set up on its first floor, another civic official said.

Currently, the Sion Hospital, Nair Hospital, KEM Hospital and Cooper Hospital here have vaccine storage facilities, he said.

These hospitals have a limited vaccine storage capacity, which is sufficient for the ongoing vaccination programmes but inadequate for the forthcoming COVID-19 vaccination, Kakani said.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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