India’s biggest vaccine rollout begins as SII ships 55L doses

India’s biggest vaccine rollout begins as SII ships 55L doses

Covaxin Shots To Be Flown Today Morning

Joy Sengupta, Umesh Isalkar & Saurabh Sinha TNN

13.01.2021

May all be free from disease” — with this slogan printed on each box, the shipment of Serum Institute of India’s Covishield set out from Pune to other parts of India on Tuesday morning, kickstarting the biggest rollout of a vaccine in the country’s history.

Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad, the four major regional depots for vaccines, received their quantum of Covishield doses within 10 hours since their dispatch began from the SII premises at 4.30am on Tuesday. Overall, 55 lakh of the total 1.1 crore doses were dispatched from the SII premises till 5pm on Tuesday, officials confirmed. “The transport exercise for the remaining doses will continue till Wednesday evening,” a senior SII official said.

Covaxin doses will reach Hyderabad airport early Wednesday morning after which they will be shipped to around11destinations across the country, including Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Patna, Lucknow and Jaipur, sources in Bharat Biotech and the aviation industry said.

SII CEO Adar Poonawala with the first of the shipments; landing at Ananda Rao circle in B’luru

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On day 1, Pune airport flies 456 boxes of vaccine vials

Among the states that received the vaccine on Tuesday, Bengal topped the list with 10 lakh doses, followed by Karnataka (6.68 lakh doses), Bihar (5.49 lakh doses) and Tamil Nadu (5.36 lakh doses). As many as 9.63 lakh doses of Covishield will be shipped out from Pune to other parts of Maharashtra on Wednesday.

The Centre has placed orders to procure 1.1crore doses of Covishield and 55 lakh doses of Covaxin, which is being produced by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech. While Covishield is priced at Rs 200 per dose, the arrangement with Bharat Biotech is such that it is charging Rs 295 per dose for 38.5 lakh doses and providing the rest 16.5 lakh doses free of cost. “Hence, the cost of Covaxin is Rs 206 per dose,” Union health seceratry Rajesh Bhushan said.

Covaxin doses will reach Hyderabad airport early Wednesday morning after which they will be shipped to around 11 destinations across the country, including Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Patna, Lucknow and Jaipur, sources in Bharat Biotech and the aviation industry confirmed to TOI.

The first vaccine consignment of the country, comprising 2.64 lakh Covishield doses loaded in three trucks, arrived at Pune airport’s cargo handling and processing facility at 5.30am on Tuesday and was shipped out at 8.05 am on SpiceXpress flight SG8937.

Currently, SII is manufacturing 7 crore to 8 crore vaccine doses per month. Private players have been roped in for providing refrigerated trucks, vans and cold storage.

Sources at Pune airport said 456 boxes containing the vaccine vials and weighing 15,000kg were transported to different states in nine aircraft of different airlines. “GoAir was the second in line and flew to Chennai with 59 boxes of the vaccine. The flight left Pune airport at 8.45am and reached Chennai at 10.20am,” an airport official said.

Union civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri tweeted: “Air India, SpiceJet, IndiGo and GoAir will operate nine flights from Pune with 56.5 lakh doses to Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Shillong, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Bengaluru, Lucknow and Chandigarh.”