GREENSBORO, N.C. — North Carolina A&T State University is preparing to store over 100,000 COVID-19 vaccines.
The school is getting new deep-cold storage freezers, along with 14 other campuses in the University of North Carolina System, university officials announced in a press release on Monday.
A&T will receive two large Stirling Ultracold units and three smaller ones, with capacity for 117,600 COVID-19 vaccines. The smaller freezers are mobile, which will allow A&T to help underserved communities.
In total, 61 freezers are being shipped to all UNC System research campuses.
The freezers are being provided by the North Carolina Policy Collaboratory, which was established by the state General Assembly in 2016 to utilize and disseminate research expertise across the University of North Carolina System for practical use by state and local government.
In May 2020, state lawmakers put $29 million toward the Collaboratory to develop and oversee a multi-campus COVID-19 research portfolio.
Once the freezers are in place, A&T staff will remotely monitor them to ensure they maintain temperatures low enough to safely store the vaccines. The units will have backup power connections to make sure they continue operating even if there's a power outage.
The UNC System office will coordinate the distribution of vaccines to campuses with the state health department. A&T will not independently procure the vaccines.