New Delhi: Ahead of the mass COVID vaccination drive beginning January 16, vaccines started rolling out from Serum Institute of India’s Pune establishment today. Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri tweeted that 56.5 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccines were despatched from Pune by nine flights operated by Air India, Spice Jet, Go Air and Indigo to Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Shillong, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Bengaluru, Lucknow and Chandigarh.
The Airport Authority of India informed that while the first consignment of COVID vaccine that took off from Pune had arrived at Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai airports, the consignment would arrive at other above mentioned airports at “any moment”.
In a tweet, Air India informed that it was all set to play a pivotal role in vaccination mission, carrying the first consignment of 2,76,000 vaccine doses weighing 700 kgs approximately from Pune to Ahmedabad today.
The vaccines, Covishield, were transported to the Pune International Airport from Serum Institute of India’s facility by trucks.
In the meantime, senion Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Rajya Sabha member, Dr. Subramanian Swamy in a tweet yesterday had raised a concern, saying the Oxford AZ Vaccine for manufacture was outsourced to Serum Institute[India], and was yet to be certified by US FDA and EU. It claimed its tests were based on foreigners.
Also read: WHO seeks full data sets from Serum Institute of India for rapid assessment of AstraZeneca vaccine
Today, the World Health Organisation had sought full data sets from Serum Institute of India for rapid assessment of AstraZeneca vaccine.
Reports attributing informed sources had suggested that on Monday the government placed a purchase order with Serum Institute of India (SII) for 11 million doses of Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, Covishield, each costing Rs 210, including the GST.
– global bihari bureau
