The cold chain capacity of the National Health Fund (NHF) has been bolstered with the opening of a cold room at its warehouse on Marcus Garvey Drive in Kingston.

The cold room was donated by the Government of Japan and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

It has two units that will store vaccines and medicines within the temperature range of between 2°C to 8°C and -15°C to -25°C.

During last Thursday’s official handover and tour, Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Christopher Tufton, expressed gratitude to the donors.

“This represents, for us, significant progress. The protection of these vaccines and medicines in this space is absolutely critical. The modernisation of this warehouse with this addition is also symbolic of the importance that we place on it… in the post-COVID period where we have to be more prepared, more resilient,” Dr Tufton said.

In his remarks, Ambassador of Japan to Jamaica, Yasuhiro Atsumi, said one of the top priorities of Japan’s economic cooperation with Jamaica is to enhance universal healthcare, in particular, tackling infectious diseases.

Ambassador Atsumi noted that with this addition, Jamaica is equipped with cold chain equipment that meets the World Health Organization’s effective vaccine management standards, which is also crucial for implementing the usual immunisation programme, such as vaccination to prevent measles.

“We hope that this cold room will complement the two Toyota Land Cruisers with refrigeration capacity, which were handed over on December 6, 2022. Japan is pleased to note that Jamaica has improved the capacity for rapid deployment and rapid access to vaccines islandwide,” he said.

Ambassador Atsumi added that in the area of capacity development, 300 refrigeration technicians and cold chain equipment handlers have been trained.

An additional 750 public health nurses and community health workers have been identified for training.

For his part, NHF Chief Executive Officer, Everton Anderson, said the cold room will improve storage efficiency at the warehouse.

“Rather than having a number of refrigerators and freezers, we are now able to store everything in a better location. We are really very happy for this donation, very happy for the partnership, and we will continue to get better through these types of partnerships,” Anderson said.

UNICEF Deputy Regional Director, Anne-Claire Dufay, underscored that the COVID-19 pandemic has proven that investments in cold chain systems strengthening is critical.

“With the support of Japan, we are pleased to support the Government of Jamaica in strengthening efforts to make sure that children’s rights to accessing vaccines are fulfilled,” Dufay said.

She added that vaccination is essential to protecting children from diseases and preventing approximately 4.4 million deaths annually.

– JIS