3 trucks laden with vaccine vials leave SII for Mumbai airport

Three trucks carrying Covishieldvaccine left Serum Institute of India's (SII) facility herefor the Mumbai airport on late Tuesday evening for nationwidedistribution ahead of the inoculation drive launch on January16, sources said.

According to the sources, from the Mumbai airport,vaccine vials from the three trucks will be dispatched to 27locations in the country on Wednesday.

''There are boxes of vaccine doses totaling weighingaround 7 tonnes. All these vaccines will be sent to 27locations in the country,'' said a source closely involved inshipments from SII.

These locations are in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, J&K,Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Puducherry andNorth-eastern states, among others, he said.

A cargo flight carrying vaccines will depart for Goafrom the Mumbai airport around 5 am on Wednesday, he added.

The first consignment of the vaccines rolled out ofthe Serum Institute of India facility early Tuesday andreached Delhi a few hours later.

Covishield is developed by Oxford University andBritish-Swedish company AstraZeneca and manufactured by theSII.

The central government on Monday placed firm orders inadvanced commitments for over six crore doses of COVID-19vaccines from SII and Bharat Biotech for inoculating threecrore healthcare and frontline workers in the first phase ofthe vaccination drive scheduled to start from January 16.