8 out 13 regional hubs get their hands on Covishield vaccine

As many as 5.6 million doses of Covishield, the vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), will be delivered across 13 cities today.

The vaccine for coronavirus disease (Covid-19) reached the respective regional hubs on Tuesday ahead of the launch of nationwide vaccination on January 16.

As many as 5.6 million doses of Covishield, the vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), will be delivered across 13 cities today.

Delhi: The first batch of Covishield vaccine vials reached Delhi's central storage facility at Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital (RGSSH) Tuesday afternoon. The Delhi Police had formed a "green corridor" from the airport to the hospital to safely transport the vials to the hospital. A special cold storage facility has been created at RGSSH to store the vaccine vials.

 

Kolkata: First consignment of Covishield vaccine arrived in Kolkata and was brought to Central Family Medical Stores in Bagbazar, where it is being stored.

Patna: The first consignment of 5.5 lakh doses of Covishield vaccine against coronavirus arrived in Patna by a SpiceJet flight on Tuesday. Another 4.5 lakh doses will arrive on Wednesday. The vaccine doses will be stored at the Bihar government's facility at the Nalanda Medical College and Hospital in the state capital.

Bengaluru: The first consignment of Covishield vaccine reached Bengaluru from the Serum Institute of India in Pune on Tuesday morning ahead of the commencement of Covid-19 vaccination in India starting from January 16. Karnataka health and medical education minister Dr K Sudhakar had earlier said that the state will get 7.95 lakh vials of Covid-19 vaccine in the first consignment.

Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada: Vaccines consignments have also reached Gujarat, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh for distribution to centres in cities and districts where the first phase of vaccination will take place four days later.

Chennai: Tamil Nadu received over five lakh doses of Covishield from the Serum Institute of India (SII) Pune. The Union Government dispatched the vaccines in a GoAir airline on Tuesday morning. Speaking to the press before receiving the vaccine consignments, Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan said the vaccine will be stored in the state centre in DMS campus and it will be distributed to ten regional depots.

Karnal, Guwahati, Lucknow, Chandigarh and Bhubaneswar are yet to receive the first batch of Covishield vaccine.
 

Meanwhile, Bharat Biotech, which has received Emergency Use Authorisation approval from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for its Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin, is set to dispatch it from the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad on Tuesday evening. Covaxin is indigenously developed by Bharat Biotech and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-National Institute of Virology (NIV).