Northern Marianas gets vaccine freezers for covid-19 treatment

By RNZ Pacific

The Northern Marianas is ready for its allocation of covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer after acquiring 10 ultra-cold freezers from South Korea.

The acquisition of the freezers came as the CNMI waits for the Pfizer vaccines to get Emergency Use Authorisation approval from the US Food and Drug Administration.

Even though the vaccines had not arrived as initially planned, the CNMI had been working on preparing and securely setting up equipment.

The plan is to have two ultra freezers on Rota and two on Tinian, while the remaining six freezers would be located on Saipan.

Meanwhile, the Northern Marianas had already received 10 vials of Bamlanivimab, a treatment for mild-to-moderate covid-19, and would receive another 10 vials soon.

Bamlanivimab is an intravenous drug which is applicable for patients who are 12 years and older and weighing at least 40 kilogrammes and who are at high risk .

The drug will only be administered to those who are covid-19 patients who are at risk of becoming worse.

A total of 1310 doses of the drug had been allocated for US territories and freely associated states.

This article is republished by the Pacific Media Centre under a partnership agreement with RNZ.