Govt. To Draw Up Guidelines For Vaccine Transport
Japan's health ministry is set to draw up guidelines for the safe transport of coronavirus vaccines across the country.
The ministry is instructing local governments to store vaccines developed by Pfizer at medical institutions at around minus 75 degrees Celsius.
The ministry also requires local governments to transport vaccines to clinics and other vaccination sites while keeping them in cold storage of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius.
Some local governments reportedly are planning to use motorcycle delivery services as the ministry allows them to contract out the delivery to common carriers.
Pfizer told NHK that its vaccines should be handled carefully, and that transporting unfrozen vaccines by motorcycle couriers is not recommended.
The company cited a lack of data to guarantee the quality of its products transported under such conditions.
The health ministry plans to distribute the new guidelines by the end of this month after receiving inquiries from local governments about how to transport vaccines.