[코로나19] What is the key to vaccination preparation?… Vaccination Center·Cold Chain·Vaccination Strategy

While the government is scheduled to officially announce a plan for vaccination against a new coronavirus infectious disease (hereinafter referred to as COVID-19) in Korea, vaccination centers, cold chains, and vaccination strategies are drawing attention as prerequisites before vaccination begins in earnest.

To date, the government has secured a total of 76 million people’s COVID-19 vaccine. Vaccine purchase contracts were signed with’COVAX facility’, an international project for joint purchase and distribution of vaccines, and with developing pharmaceutical companies such as AstraZeneca, Modena, Pfizer and Janssen. It is pursuing a supply contract for 20 million people with Nova Bax.

Prime Minister Jeong Sye-gyun visited the headquarters of Ilshin Biobase in Dongducheon, Gyeonggi-do, a company that produces ultra-low temperature freezers for vaccine storage on the 21st, and inspects vaccine freezers. [사진=연합뉴스]

According to the Central Defense Countermeasure Headquarters on the 24th, the’Corona 19 Vaccination Response Promotion Team’, in which the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and related ministries participate, will confirm the vaccination implementation plan and officially announce it on the 28th. Corona 19 vaccination center operation plan and vaccination strategy are expected to be included.

One of the prerequisites that the government should prepare before starting vaccination in earnest is the establishment of an inoculation center. The government announced on the 21st that vaccination will be carried out at 250 vaccination centers nationwide and 10,000 consigned medical institutions. Like Pfizer and Modena, mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) vaccines that must be kept in a’cryogenic’ state are expected to be delivered at the vaccination center, and other vaccines such as AstraZeneca, which are relatively easy to store, are expected to be delivered at consigned medical institutions.

The vaccination center is expected to inoculate about 1,000 to 3,000 people a day. The government plans to select 150 candidate sites that have been received by local governments by the 20th, and finalize them earlier this week after reviewing them with the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

One of the prerequisites is the construction of a cold chain, which is coupled with the establishment of an inoculation center. During transportation, Pfizer’s vaccine must be kept at -70 degrees Celsius and modena vaccines at -20 degrees Celsius to be effective. AstraZeneca’s vaccine is relatively free from temperature issues, but requires refrigeration.

In this regard, SK Bioscience was recently selected as a vaccine distributor through an announcement requested by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is reported that the vaccine for delivery includes products from several companies, including Pfizer, which is scheduled to be vaccinated next month. However, this contract is not a contract for the entire distribution of vaccines for 76 million people, which Korea has decided to introduce.

In addition, the’vaccination strategy’ to maximize the preventive effect of the vaccine is mentioned as one of the essential conditions. There is a need for a plan to increase the’utility’ of the preventive effect that appears when the vaccine is approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and is actually used in the general public. This is because the COVID-19 vaccine developed by individual pharmaceutical companies differs in terms of delivery conditions, vaccine effectiveness, and inoculation method. In addition, the number and schedule of vaccinations may be different from those recommended by pharmaceutical companies.

For example, even though the vaccine is recommended for a total of 2 vaccinations, only one vaccination or 2 vaccinations should be performed every 4 weeks, but various situations may occur such as more or less vaccination.