Union govt orders 11 million doses of SII’s Covishield at Rs 210 each

The Serum Institute on India on Monday said it has received the purchase order from the Centre for the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. "We have received the (purchase) order from the Government of India on Monday afternoon," a senior SII official told PTI.

The government has already announced that the process of administering the vaccine will start on on January 16. The SII vaccine developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca, called Covishield, was cleared for emergency use along with Bharat Biotech's indigenous "Covaxin" earlier this month.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that the Centre and not the states will bear expenses for first-phase vaccination of around three crore health workers and frontline staff.

It was earlier reported that the transportation of Covishield vaccine from the Serum Institute of India's facility in Pune in Maharashtra is likely to start from the evening of January 11 or on January 12. The vaccine-laden trucks will move out from Manjari location of the SII with elaborate police security.

The Central government on Saturday had said India will launch its COVID-19 vaccination drive from January 16, with priority to be given to nearly three crore health care and frontline workers.

"With all likelihood, there are possibilities that the transportation of the Covishield vaccine will start from Monday. Tentatively, there are plans to start the movement of the vaccine on Monday, but if that does not happen by some reasons, it will definitely start from Tuesday morning," said the sources involved in the planning for security and logistics for transportation of the vaccine.

Covishield is co-developed by the University of Oxford and British-Swedish company AstraZeneca in collaboration with the SII.

The Maharashtra government has already decided to provide police security to the trucks carrying the vaccine up to airports and to borders of the state.

"A cold chain logistics service provider - Kool-Ex Cold Chain Ltd is the lead vendor for the movement of the vaccine from the SII factory to 48 primary government locations (depots) in the first leg," company's co-founder Rahul Agarwal had said.

He said about 300 GPS-fitted trucks will be used and while 500 trucks will be roped in if needed.