KOLKATA: The Kolkata
airport has turned into a
hub of Covid-19
vaccine distribution with consignments being flown from Pune and later loaded on to flights headed for various cities in the north-east.
On Tuesday, the SpiceJet flight that flew in from Pune with nearly 1 lakh doses later flew to Guwahati with 2,40,000 doses of vaccine.
Of these, 2,04,000 doses were meant for Assam while the rest were for
Meghalaya that was despatched by road from Guwahati airport.
Of the 9,96,000 doses that had arrived in Kolkata by the Spicejet cargo aircraft, 6,96,000 were meant for the health workers in Bengal. The rest were stored in the Central government regional vaccine depot at Hastings.
From the depot, 1,20,000 doses were transported to Kolkata airport on Wednesday. Two Indigo flights — one to
Agartala and the other to Imphal — flew out with 60,000 doses of vaccine each. On Wednesday, 24,000 doses of Covishield were flown into Kolkata airport from Pune by an IndiGo flight. These vaccines were transferred to a waiting Air India flight to Aizwal.
“Kolkata airport will be the nerve centre of hub-and-spoke operations during the vaccination drive with vaccines being flown in from Pune in bulk and then flown out to various north-eastern states as per the requirement. While the government depot in Hastings will act as an interim storage facility for the vaccine, Kolkata airport too is ready with cold storage,” said an airport official.