Covid-19 Vaccination in India Update: Nearly sixty lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been dispatched on Tuesday from the facilities of Serum Institute of India (SII) in Pune to 13 cities about the nation. Around 56.5 lakh doses have been dispatched by air, although the remaining consignments to Mumbai and other components of Maharashtra left by road with a police escort.
The government has procured 1.1 crore doses at Rs 200 per dose (Rs 210 with taxes). SII has a stock of seven crore doses prepared. Adar Poonawalla, CEO, SII, termed the initial shipment of the Covishield vaccine as an emotional moment for the group at SII and an historic day for the business.
At present, the doses will be supplied only to the government and will not be accessible in the private market place.
Four airlines — SpiceJet, Indigo, Air India and GoAir — operated nine flights from Pune to provide 56.5 lakh doses to 13 cites on Tuesday. The doses have been delivered to Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Shillong, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Bengaluru, Lucknow and Chandigarh, civil aviation minister Hardeep S Puri mentioned in a tweet.
SpiceJet carried the country’s initial consignment of Covid-19 vaccine, comprising 2,64,000 doses, from Pune to Delhi on flight SG 8937. The flight took off from Pune airport at 8.05 am and landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi at 10.15 am.
SpiceJet transported 40 lakh doses on the initial day, with consignments of 276,000 doses becoming sent to Guwahati, 996,000 doses to Kolkata, 3,72,000 doses to Hyderabad, 480,000 doses to Bhubaneswar, 648,000 doses to Bengaluru, 552,000 doses to Patna and 408,000 doses to Vijayawada.
Ajay Singh, CMD, SpiceJet, mentioned the consignments, weighing close to 11 tonne, have been carried to the eight cities by SpiceXpress, the airline’s cargo arm. SpiceJet has partnered with GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo, Om Logistics and Snowman Logistics amongst other folks to transport the vaccines. It has also tied up with Brussels airport for vaccine delivery involving India and Europe and beyond.
SII has not been granted permission to sell the vaccine in the private market place however. Poonawalla mentioned in an interview with a tv channel that he was hopeful of undertaking so two months soon after the initial phase of inoculating frontline well being workers was completed. Poonawalla has fixed a cost of `1,000 per dose for the private market place.