1st consignment of Covishield vaccines leaves Serum Institute

The first consignment of Covishieldvaccines left the Serum Institute of India in the wee hours onTuesday ahead of the January 16 nationwide inoculation drivelaunch, marking a decisive phase in anti-coronavirus fight.

Three temperature-controlled trucks rolled out of theSerum Institute's gates shortly before 5 am and left for Puneairport, from where the vaccines will be flown across India.

A 'puja' was performed before the vehicles left thefacility.

The 13 locations where Covishield vaccines will beflown from Pune include Delhi, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Chennai,Bengaluru, Karnal, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Guwahati, Lucknow,Chandigarh and Bhubaneswar, a source closely involved in thetransport arrangements told PTI.

The trucks carried 478 boxes of the vaccines and eachbox weighs 32 kg. The cargo will be dispatched to theselocations by 10 am, he added.

The consignment for Mumbai will leave by road, hesaid, adding trucks belonging to Kool-ex Cold Chain Ltd arebeing used to ferry the vaccine stocks.

The Central government on Monday placed firm orders inadvanced commitments for over 6 crore doses of COVID vaccinefrom Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech for inoculating threecrore healthcare and frontline workers in the first phase ofthe vaccination drive scheduled to start from January 16.