A MASSIVE pan-India inoculation drive against COVID-19 was set in process with more than 56 lakh doses of the Covishield vaccine leaving Pune for 13 cities across India on Tuesday, four days before the vaccinations are scheduled to begin on January 16. The first consignment of the vaccines rolled out of the Serum Institute of India facility in Pune early on Tuesday and reached Delhi a few hours later.

 

The vaccine movement has started, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Twitter. Four airlines will operate nine flights to transport 56.5 lakh doses of the vaccine from Pune to 13 cities across the country on Tuesday, he said. Covishield is developed by Oxford University and British-Swedish company AstraZeneca and manufactured by the SII.

 

The first two flights operated by “SpiceJet and GoAir from Pune to Delhi and Chennai have taken off,” the Minister said in the morning. “I am happy to share that SpiceJet has carried India’s first consignment of COVID vaccine today. The first consignment of Covishield consisting of 34 boxes was carried from Pune to Delhi on SpiceJet flight 8937,” said Ajay Singh.