India Corona inoculation starts 16 Jan; first batch distributed |
An important phase in India`s fight against COVID-19 began in the wee hours on 12th January when the first consignment of the Serum Institute of India`s Covid-19 vaccine, Covishield, left for Pune airport, four days ahead of the nationwide inoculation drive launch. Three temperature-controlled trucks rolled out of the Serum Institute`s gates early morning and left for Pune airport, from where the vaccines will be flown across India. The 13 locations where Covishield vaccines will be flown from Pune include Delhi, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Karnal, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Guwahati, Lucknow, Chandigarh and Bhubaneswar. The Serum Institute of India has received government approval for a rollout, whereas Bharat Biotech is still conducting phase III trials and has got a conditional nod for restricted use. Covishield is co-developed by the University of Oxford and British-Swedish company AstraZeneca in collaboration with the Serum Institute. According to the operational guidelines for the vaccine, the government aims to cover 300 million citizens in the first phase of the immunisation program by July-August, which includes 10 million health workers, 20 million frontline workers and 270 million citizens aged over 50. The Union health ministry recently said 29,000 cold chains, 240 walk-in coolers, 70 walk-in freezers, 45,000 ice-lined refrigerators, 41,000 deep freezers and 300 solar refrigerators would be used to store the vaccines. There will be 300 to 500 trips in the next couple of months transporting vaccines to storage facilities.
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