3 trucks laden with vaccine vials leave SII for Mumbai airport

Three trucks carrying Covishield vaccine left Serum Institute of India's (SII) facility here for the Mumbai airport on late Tuesday evening for nationwide distribution ahead of the inoculation drive launch on January 16, sources said.

According to the sources, from the Mumbai airport, vaccine vials from the three trucks will be dispatched to 27 locations in the country on Wednesday.

"There are boxes of vaccine doses totaling weighing around 7 tonnes. All these vaccines will be sent to 27 locations in the country," said a source closely involved in shipments from SII.

These locations are in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, J&K, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Puducherry and North-eastern states, among others, he said.A cargo flight carrying vaccines will depart for Goa from the Mumbai airport around 5 am on Wednesday, he added.The first consignment of the vaccines rolled out of the Serum Institute of India facility early Tuesday and reached Delhi a few hours later.

Covishield is developed by Oxford University and British-Swedish company AstraZeneca and manufactured by the SII.

The central government on Monday placed firm orders in advanced commitments for over six crore doses of COVID-19 vaccines from SII and Bharat Biotech for inoculating three crore healthcare and frontline workers in the first phase of the vaccination drive scheduled to start from January 16. 

(IMAGE CREDITS:PTI)