First Covishield vaccines consignment leaves Serum Institute

A decisive phase in India's fightagainst coronavirus began in the wee hours on Tuesday as thefirst consignment of Covishield vaccines left Serum Instituteof India for Pune airport, four days ahead of the nationwideinoculation drive launch.

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

The trucks carried 478 boxes of the vaccines, eachbox weighing 32 kg, a source involved in the vaccine transportarrangements told PTI.

The trucks left the Serum Institute of India premisesat Manjari and reached the airport, located 15 km from thefacility.

From the airport, the vaccines will be dispatched to13 locations across the country by 10 am, the source said.

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

The locations where these Covishield vaccines will beflown from Pune include Delhi, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Chennai,Bengaluru, Karnal, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Guwahati, Lucknow,Chandigarh and Bhubaneswar.

The vaccines will be flown from Pune in eightcommercial flights, including two cargo flights, the sourcesaid. The first cargo flight will cover Hyderabad, Vijayawada,and Bhubaneswar and the second cargo flight will go to Kolkataand Guwahati, he added.

The consignment for Mumbai will leave by road. Trucksbelonging to Kool-ex Cold Chain Ltd are being used to ferrythe vaccine stocks from Serum Institute.

Among the first batch, one consignment is scheduled tobe shipped by an Air India cargo flight to Ahmedabad.

On Monday, Gujarat deputy chief minister Nitin Pateltweeted that his state will receive the first consignment ofcoronavirus vaccine on Tuesday at 10.45 am at the SardarVallabhbhai Patel Airport in Ahmedabad.

The Central government on Monday placed firm orders inadvanced commitments for over six crore doses of vaccinesfrom Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech for inoculating threecrore healthcare and frontline workers in the first phase ofthe nationwide vaccination drive beginning January 16.

Interacting with state chief ministers on Monday,Prime Minister Narendra Modi underscored the enormity of whathe called as the world's biggest vaccination exercise, sayingover 30 crore citizens will get the jabs in the next fewmonths in India against only 2.5 crore people vaccinated sofar in over 50 countries in around a month.