The government had announced on January 9 that the vaccination program will start from January 16 across the country.
Ahead of the commencement of coronavirus vaccination in India from January 16, the first consignment of Covishield vaccine has reached Delhi from the Serum Institute of India in Pune. Three trucks left the institute early Tuesday morning for the Pune International Airport, which will be sent to different parts of the country.
A total of 478 boxes of vaccines will be delivered in 13 cities of the country. Each box weighs about 32 kg. Before the vaccine-filled trucks were dispatched, a prayer was conducted.
Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri informed that 56.5 lakh doses of vaccines are being transported to Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Shillong, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Bengaluru, Lucknow and Chandigarh, from Pune.
"Civil aviation sector launches yet another momentous mission. Vaccine movement starts. First two flights operated by SpiceJet and GoAir from Pune to Delhi and Chennai have taken off," he tweeted.
"Today Air India, SpiceJet, GoAir and IndiGo will operate nine flights from Pune with 56.5 lakh doses to Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Shillong, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Bengaluru, Lucknow and Chandigarh," Puri added.
Earlier today, amid tight security, three trucks carrying the very first consignment of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine reached Pune airport to be flown to 13 locations across the country.
In the first phase, in addition to Delhi, vaccines are being airlifted to Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Karnal, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Guwahati, Lucknow, Chandigarh and Bhubaneswar. On the other hand, the vaccine will be sent directly to Mumbai via truck.
The government had announced on Saturday (January 9) that the vaccination program will start from January 16 across the country. In the first phase, it will be administered to health workers and frontline workers, whose estimated number is around 3 crore. After this, the vaccine will be given to people above the age of 50 years and then to those below the age of 50 who are suffering from serious illness. The number of such people is around 27 crores.
Serum Institute of India (SII) has received a purchase order from the Government of India for 11 million doses of Covishield vaccine, which would be available at the price of Rs 200 per dose, SII officials had said on Monday.
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