University of Regina offers to store COVID-19 vaccines in super-cold freezer

The University of Regina has offered freezer space for the Pfizer-BioNTechCOVID-19 vaccine.

The vaccine has to be stored between60 and 80 C,and the university said there are relatively few places in the province withstorageat these temperatures.

The universitysaid it's working with the Ministry of Health to be one of the hubs for the vaccine to be delivered across the province.

Kara Loos,a research associate and lab manager for the faculty of science at the University of Regina,has also been helping with COVID-19 testing at the Roy Romanow provincial lab in Regina.

She saidtwo freezers at the University of Regina (U of R)have been emptied out one in its supply management facility and the other in the Research and Innovation Centre. These two freezers can store material at therequired 80 C.

"We've committed to being available should the space be required," Loos said.

She said the Roy Romanowlab in Regina where the vaccines are currently storedhas many storage freezers available, but there is a limit to how many can be stored.

Loos said mostvaccines are not stored at such low temperatures, so there's not a lot of space for the COVID-19 vaccines.

"The space is available should you need it, we don't have a time put in place for when the vaccines are going to be stored there," she said. "But they're definitely made available should it need to happen today or tomorrow or at any time."

Loos said the vaccine is being transported to Saskatchewan on dry ice, but this method of delivery is challenging since dry ice is considered a dangerous good.

"Once it gets to its location it can be stored at 80 C in the freezers but then once you get it to fridge temperatures it's only good for up to 30 days," Loos said. "So this becomes a challenge when getting into more remote locations and where dry ice isn't as available."

Loos said the vaccine cannot be refrozen once it's thawed.

She said it would be ideal for the vaccines stored at the university to be used for the residents of Regina because the transportation becomes less complicated, but there is potential for the vaccine to be made available to other places in the province.

"It just depends on what the need is and where it fits into the plan with SHA and how they administer the vaccine."

Loos said if needed, other researchers at the university are willing to give up their freezer space if more vaccine storage is required.

"Whatever the demand is, we'll be able to support the Roy Romanow provincial lab in that storage."

CBC has asked the Saskatchewan Health Authority for commenton this story.