A South African company is seeking to help solve the logistical nightmare of keeping Covid-19 vaccinations at the ultra-cold temperatures necessary as they are shipped across the continent.

Johannesburg-based natural gas producer Renergen is developing an ultra-cold biologic transport freezer for the task as countries throughout Africa plan for rollouts of comprehensive vaccination programmes.

The vaccines developed jointly by US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech must be stored at -70 degrees Celsius (-94 degrees Fahrenheit), a far cry from what much of rural Africa can support.

Wealthier nations have capitalised on their vast storage and distribution infrastructure to amass stockpiles of shots from those companies.

Renergen's design will use helium to transport vials by air and nitrogen by road, keeping them at between -150 to eight degree Celsius, its CEO Stefano Marani said Wednesday.

The storage case, called Cryo-Vacc, can operate without power supply for more than 25 days, he said.

Vaccines are often transported in Africa in dry ice that usually last about only three days.

Marani said their biggest container can hold between 5,000 and 6,000 vials.

The aluminium cases are also equipped with tracking devices and monitors to evenly distribute the freezing temperatures.

"This has been designed to be robust and rugged," he told AFP.

"It has been designed for the field. You can kick it, you can drop it, you can leave it in the sun, it doesn't care, it's going to operate until it runs out of cryogen," said Marani.

vid-ho/sn/mjs

PFIZER

BioNTech

Related Links
Epidemics on Earth - Bird Flu, HIV/AIDS, Ebola

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The Space Media Network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceMediaNetwork Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceMediaNetwork Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Iraq detects new UK-based strain, reimposes partial lockdown
Baghdad (AFP) Feb 15, 2021
Iraq will re-impose partial lockdown measures until early March after detecting a new strain of the coronavirus, including among children, its health minister announced on Monday. "Unfortunately, government labs showed genetic mutations in the Covid-19 strain, detecting the new fast-spreading strain in Iraq," Hassan al-Tamimi told reporters. He referred to the strain as the one "which spread in the UK," and said it had been detected in some Iraqi children, but did not give a total number of peo ... read more