NEW DELHI: The first consignment containing vials of Covishield vaccine was dispatched from the Serum Institute of India (SII) in the early hours of Tuesday.
The first flight left for Delhi from Pune airport.
The decisive phase in India's fight against coronavirus began today, just four days ahead of the nationwide inoculation drive launch.
Trucks carrying consignment of vaccine left for Pune airport - Amid tight security, three trucks carrying the very first consignment of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine left for Pune airport to be flown to 13 locations across the country today.
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Covid-19 vaccine: First flight carrying Covishield departs from Pune to reach Delhi
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A decisive phase in India's fight against coronavirus began in the wee hours on Tuesday as the first consignment of Covishield vaccines left Serum Institute of India for Pune airport, four days ahead of the nationwide inoculation drive launch. (ANI)
Three temperature-controlled trucks rolled out of the Serum Institute gates shortly before 5 am and left for Pune airport, from where the vaccines will be flown across India. (ANI)
The trucks carried 478 boxes of the vaccines, each box weighing 32 kg, a source involved in the vaccine transport arrangements said. (ANI)
First two flights operated by SpiceJet and GoAir from Pune to Delhi and Chennai have taken off.
From the airport, the vaccines will be dispatched to 13 locations across the country by 10 am, the source said. (ANI)
The locations where these Covishield vaccines will be flown from Pune include Delhi, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Karnal, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Guwahati, Lucknow, Chandigarh and Bhubaneswar.
The vaccines will be flown from Pune in eight commercial flights, including two cargo flights, the source said. The first cargo flight will cover Hyderabad, Vijayawada, and Bhubaneswar and the second cargo flight will go to Kolkata and Guwahati.
SpiceJet has carried India’s first consignment of Covid vaccine today. (ANI)
'The first consignment of 'Covishield' consisting of 34 boxes and weighing 1088 kg was carried from Pune to Delhi', said Ajay Singh, Chairman & Managing Director, SpiceJet.
'Today marks the beginning of a long and decisive phase in India’s fight against the pandemic and SpiceJet is proud to assist in the biggest vaccination drive in the history of mankind,' said Ajay Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, SpiceJet.
First consignment of Covid-19 vaccine Covishield reaches Delhi
- Three temperature-controlled trucks rolled out of the Serum Institute gates shortly before 5 am and left for Pune airport, from where the vaccines will be flown across India.
- The trucks carried 478 boxes of the vaccines, each box weighing 32 kg, a source involved in the vaccine transport arrangements said.
- A SpiceJet flight carrying the vaccines left for the national capital around 8 am, three hours after three trucks with the maiden consignment of the vaccines rolled out of the SII facility, 15 km from the airport.
- "Ready get set go! Stand by India! The vaccine to kill the disease is being loaded into the aircraft for distribution all over the country now," Pune airport tweeted.
- A 'puja' was performed before the vehicles left the facility.
- Besides Delhi, the vaccines will be dispatched to 12 other locations across the country in seven more flights by 10 am on Tuesday, the source said.
- The locations include Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Karnal, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Guwahati, Lucknow, Chandigarh and Bhubaneswar.
- The flights include two cargo flights, the source said. The first cargo flight will cover Hyderabad, Vijayawada, and Bhubaneswar and the second cargo flight will go to Kolkata and Guwahati, he added.
- The consignment for Mumbai will leave by road. Trucks belonging to Kool-ex Cold Chain Ltd are being used to ferry the vaccine stocks from Serum Institute.
- A consignment will be flown to to Ahmedabad.
- Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri took to Twitter and said four airlines will operate nine flights to transport 56.5 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccine from Pune to 13 cities across the country on Tuesday.
- Vaccine movement has started, he said on Twitter, adding that first two flights operated by "SpiceJet and GoAir from Pune to Delhi and Chennai have taken off".
- The roll-out of Covid-19 vaccine will give priority to the healthcare and frontline workers who are estimated to be around 3 crore, followed by those above 50 years of age and the under-50 population groups with comorbidities numbering around 27 crore.
- The Central government on Monday placed firm orders in advanced commitments for over six crore doses of vaccines from Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech for inoculating three crore healthcare and frontline workers in the first phase of the nationwide vaccination drive beginning January 16.
On January 3, two vaccines - Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and Oxford-AstraZeneca's
Covishield manufactured by Serum Institute of India - were approved for restricted emergency use.
The vaccine approval process has been marred with controversies after Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech's Covaxin was approved for emergency use without the phase-3 trials.
The total tally of Covid-positive cases in India have scaled up to over 1.04 crore cases and death toll stands at over 1.51 lakh, as per health ministry data.
Interacting with state chief ministers on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi underscored the enormity of what he called as the world's biggest vaccination exercise, saying over 30 crore citizens will get the jabs in the next few months in India against only 2.5 crore people vaccinated so far in over 50 countries in around a month.
(With inputs from agencies)