Flights leave Pune carrying lakhs of Covishield vaccine doses

Pune: A decisive phase in India's fight against Coronavirus began on Tuesday as the first consignment of Covishield vaccines left for Delhi, four days ahead of the nationwide inoculation drive launch.

Four airlines are operating nine flights to transport 56.5 lakh doses of the vaccine from Pune to 13 cities across the country on Tuesday, Civil Aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri said. The first two flights, operated by SpiceJet and GoAir to Delhi and Chennai, took off from Pune in the morning and the other flights followed shortly.

"Today @airindiain @flyspicejet @goairlinesindia & @IndiGo6E will operate 9 flights from Pune with 56.5 lakh doses to Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Shillong, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Bengaluru, Lucknow & Chandigarh," Puri said on Twitter.

A SpiceJet flight carrying the vaccines left Pune for Delhi around 8 am, three hours after three trucks with the maiden consignment of the vaccines rolled out of the Serum Institute of India facility, 15 km from the airport.

The temperature-controlled trucks left the Serum Institute gates shortly before 5 am, carrying 478 boxes of the vaccines, each box weighing 32 kg, a source involved in the vaccine transport arrangements said.

The vaccine consignment for Mumbai will leave by road.

Trucks belonging to Kool-ex Cold Chain Limited are being used to ferry the vaccine stocks from Serum Institute.

The government has committed to buy from the Serum Institute further 4.5 crore doses of Oxford Covid-19 vaccine, Covishield, at a price of Rs 200 per shot plus applicable taxes by April, in addition to a firm order given to the company for 1.1 crore doses.

The Union Health ministry announced on Tuesday all vaccine doses, 1.10 crore from Serum Institute of India and 55 lakh from Bharat Biotech, will be given to all states and Union Territories by January 14. During a press briefing on Tuesday, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said 38.5 lakh Bharat Biotech's Covaxin doses will cost Rs 295 each (excluding taxes), adding that the company will be providing 16.5 lakh doses for free, bringing the price to Rs 206 each.

Bhushan said there are four Central government Medical Stores Depots at Chennai, Karnal, Kolkata and Mumbai where the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, Covishield, doses are being received.