Covid-19 Vaccine India: Vaccine consignments reach 13 cities; emotional moment, says SII’s Poonawalla

Covid-19 Vaccination in India Update: Nearly sixty lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccines were dispatched on Tuesday from the facilities of Serum Institute of India (SII) in Pune to 13 cities around the country. Around 56.5 lakh doses were dispatched by air, while the remaining consignments to Mumbai and other parts 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 ready. Adar Poonawalla, CEO, SII, termed the first shipment of the Covishield vaccine as an emotional moment for the team at SII and an historic day for the company.

At present, the doses will be supplied only to the government and will not be available in the private market.

Four airlines — SpiceJet, Indigo, Air India and GoAir — operated nine flights from Pune to deliver 56.5 lakh doses to 13 cites on Tuesday. The doses were delivered to Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Shillong, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Bengaluru, Lucknow and Chandigarh, civil aviation minister Hardeep S Puri said in a tweet.

SpiceJet carried the country’s first 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 first day, with consignments of 276,000 doses being 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, said the consignments, weighing close to 11 tonne, were 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 among others to transport the vaccines. It has also tied up with Brussels airport for vaccine delivery between India and Europe and beyond.

SII has not been granted permission to sell the vaccine in the private market yet. Poonawalla said in an interview with a television channel that he was hopeful of doing so two months after the first phase of inoculating frontline health workers was completed. Poonawalla has fixed a price of `1,000 per dose for the private market.