DILI, 17 september, 2021 (TATOLI)- United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the government of Japan handed over Cold Chain and Communication and Technology Items ( ICT) to the Minister of Health (MoH).
This support is to expand the cold-chain vaccine storage capacity of regional warehouses in the Ainaru, Baukau, and Bobonaru municipalities and the Special Administrative Region of Oekusi (RAEOA).
The UNICEF Representative in Timor-Leste, Bilal Aurang Zeb Durrani said in his remarks that UNICEF is standing on a commitment to support Timor-Leste since this country deal with covid-19.
“We are supporting the cold rooms and freezer rooms, voltage stabilizers, to fridge tags for temperature monitoring. The support composed of 20 laptops and 500 fridges including the 30-day temperature data loggers, enable monitoring of the temperature of the vaccine in storage refrigerators,” said Durrani.
He added it is the first time that cold-chain storage facilities for vaccines are available at the regional warehouse, enabling storage and distribution of vaccines for routine and special vaccination campaigns at the same time reducing the transport costs.
This support is provided by UNICEF to ensure hundreds of thousands of children will routinely receive vaccines in the country is well managing.
The Ambassador of Japan Kinefuchi Masami said that this support is offered by Japan and managed by the UNICEF to help Timor-Leste in the time of the pandemic.
Japan acknowledge that Timor-Leste is currently in a difficult situation in dealing with COVID-19, therefore the Ministry of Health will need more support especially the health equipment for the health system: “It is not easy for the country to deal with delta variant and it takes long times for the preparation for well managing of covid-19 vaccine to ensure the health resilient for the whole population,”
At the same place Minister of Health, Odete Maria Da Silva Belo Viegas requests to all Timorese approach every health clinic or vaccination center to get the vaccine.
“I request more support for development partners on additional generators to ensure the electrical power is available for the cold chain. The vaccine storage mostly depended on public electricity that otherwise cut off in minutes or in a second, which is also can cause damage to the vaccine,” Said Minter of Health Odete.
The Japanese Embassy has placed 1.2 million USD to purchase the Cold chain and ICT equipment which is managing by UNICEF.
The handover ceremony was participated by the Minister of Health Odete Maria Freitas Belo, Ambassador of Japan to Timor-Leste, Mr.Kinefuchi Masami, The representative of UNICEF in Timor-Leste, Bilal Aurang Zeb Durrani, Director Executive of SAMES Mr. Santana Martins, and other guests.
Journalist: José Belarmino De Sá
Editor: Nelia Borges Rosario
