Serum Institute of India’s Covishield vaccine leaves from Pune International Airport for 12 Cities

Covishield vaccine: Three trucks carrying the Covishield vaccine left the Serum Institute of India building at 4:55 am IST, followed by a police escort vehicle to reach the Pune International Airport. The unloading started at the cargo terminal at around 5:30 am and they will be dispatched to 12 cities in India, The Hindustan Times reported. 

The first batch of Covishield vaccine truck with 478 boxes of the vaccines, each box weighing 32 kg, PTI revealed citing an anonymous authority. The primary cargo flight will cover Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar, Vijayawada, and the subsequent cargo flight will leave for Guwahati and Kolkata. The consignment for Mumbai will leave via the road.

The first consignment via SpiceJet flight conveying the immunizations left for Delhi around 8 am and arrives shortly. It contains 34 boxes and weighs 1,088kg. It is expected to head to East Delhi’s Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital to store the coronavirus vaccine. Adequate freezers and cold chain equipment have been set up for the rollout. 

“Ready get set go! Stand by India! The immunization to battle the illness is being stacked into the airplane for distribution everywhere in the nation now,” the Pune air terminal tweeted. 

Ajay Singh, Chairman, and Managing Director, SpiceJet expressed, “We will carry numerous ‘Covishield” vaccine consignments to various cities in India such as Guwahati, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Bengaluru, and Patna today. 

“SpiceJet is well prepared to send the vaccines both outside and within India. Today marks the start of a long and conclusive phase in India’s battle against the pandemic and SpiceJet is glad to serve in the greatest inoculation drive.” NDTV detailed. 

Two immunizations – the Covishield created by the Oxford University and pharma giant AstraZeneca and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin – got an emergency approval from the Drug Controller of India recently. Both include two-dose, which should be administered at a 28-day gap. 

PM Narendra Modi stated in the first week of Jan 2021 that around 30 crore individuals will be vaccinated, beginning with health workers, and the frontline workers in the first phase.

The Hindustan Lifecare Limited or HLL, a Central enterprise will purchase the doses from both the Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech. The rollout of the immunizations is scheduled for January 16 and the Covishield will be priced at ₹ 200 for the first 100 million doses.