Wait is now Over: Delhi, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu Receive 1st consignment of Covishield Covid Vaccine

The first consignment containing vials of Covishield vaccine reaches Delhi, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu from the Serum Institute of India. On Tuesday, India got a step closer to start the Covid-19 vaccination drive for it’s 30 crore people. The first consignment of Covishield, containing 478 boxes of vaccines, each weighing 32 kg, is being sent to 13 locations across the country. The locations include Delhi, Ahmedabad, Kolkata. Chennai, Bengaluru, Karnal, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Guwahati, Lucknow, Chandigarh and Bhubaneswar.

Three trucks belonging to Kool-ex Cold Chain Ltd are being rolled out of the Serum Institute gates shortly before 5 am and left for Pune airport, from where the vaccines will be flown across India. All three trucks are temperature-controlled. ‘May All Be Free from Disease’ is written on all vaccine boxes. A Puja was performed before the vehicles left the facility.

Nine flights will operate from Pune with 56.5 lakh doses. The first flight carrying Covishield vaccine was Spice Jet’s. Ajay Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, Spice Jet, said “I am happy to share that Spice Jet has carried India’s first consignment of COVID vaccine today. The first consignment of Covishield consisting of 34 boxes and weighing 1,088 kg was carried from Pune to Delhi on Spice Jet flight 8937.”

Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri took to Twitter and said, “four airlines will operate nine flights to transport 56.5 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccine from Pune to 13 cities across the country on Tuesday.”

Videh Kumar Jaipuriar, CEO, Delhi International Airport Limited said “We have received the first batch of Covid-19 vaccine at our airport. Temperature-controlled facility, ranging from -20 Deg C to +25 Deg C, at our two cargo terminals can efficiently and safely handle these temperature-sensitive vaccines. We have cool chambers and cool dollies to maintain the temperature required for these vaccines at the cargo terminal and during transit between aircraft and terminal or vice versa. Our terminals can handle around 5.7 million vials in a day.”

Air India, Spice Jet, Go Air, along with IndiGo are the airline companies, which are given the task of transportation of Vaccine. Earlier on Monday, the Central government placed firm orders in advanced commitments for over six crore doses of vaccines from Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech for inoculating three crore healthcare and frontline workers in the first phase of the vaccination drive.