Covid Vaccine Rollout: States across India receive first consignments of ‘Covishield’

The first 100 million doses of the vaccine has been provided to the government at the cost of Rs 200 per dose.

On January 3, Covishield, along with Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, were approved for restricted emergency use by the Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI).

Delhi

The first consignment of Covishield vaccines reached Delhi from Pune on Tuesday, four days ahead of the launch of a nationwide drive against the coronaviru

A SpiceJet flight carrying the vaccines landed at the Delhi airport around 10 am. It had left for the national capital around 8 am, three hours after three trucks with the maiden consignment of the vaccines rolled out of the Serum Institute of India (SII) facility, 15 km from the Pune airport.

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Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri 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.

Uttar Pradesh

The first consignment of COVID-19 vaccines reached the Lucknow airport. At the airport, a puja too was also performed before dispatching the container to a vaccine storage facility in the state capital. 1,298 centres have been set up in the state for the safekeeping of vaccines.

Bihar

The first consignment of 54,900 vials of Covishield vaccines landed at the Jay Prakash Narayan International Airport. “Made in India 54,900 vials of Coronavirus vaccine Covishield reached Patna. People in Bihar will be vaccinated from January 16 (2021),” Bihars Health minister Mangal Pandey tweeted. Each vial contains 10 doses of the vaccine, the SHS release said.

The first batch of vaccines was taken in refrigerated vans to the State Vaccine Store at Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH) here.

Gujarat

The Gujarat government received 2.76 lakh doses of Covishield vaccine from the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), which has started dispatching the vaccine to various cities for the January 16 nationwide rollout of the inoculation drive.

These doses were transported to designated places by the police by creating green corridor.

Additionally, 93,500 doses of the vaccine will reach Surat from Pune by road on Wednesday, while 94,5000 doses will reach Vadodara and 77,000 doses will reach Rajkot.

Odisha

Odisha on Tuesday received the first consignment of the COVID-19 vaccine before launch of the vaccination programme across the state from January 16.

A consignment consisting of 34 boxes weighing over 1,200 kg of Covishield vaccine, manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII) arrived at the Biju Patnaik International Airport here on a special flight from Pune via New Delhi.

The state has been allotted 4.08 lakh doses of Covishield and 20,000 doses of Covaxin will soon reach in the next phase.

Maharashtra

The Maharashtra government has received 9.63 lakh doses of Covishield vaccine from Serum Institute of India (SII) and inoculation will be conducted at 511 centres. Mumbai, the state capital, will have the highest number of 72 centres while Pune district will have 55 centres, an official release said as first consignments of vaccine left SII in Pune earlier in the day.

Karnataka

The first consignment of 6.47 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccines arrived in Bengaluru. 6,47,500 doses of vaccine arrived in Bengaluru and Belagavi in the northern part of the state will receive next consignment tomorrow.

Tamil Nadu

The first batch of Covishield vaccine has reached Chennai on Tuesday. The coronavirus vaccine will distributed further to 10 regional centres and 51 walk-in coolers.

Punjab

Punjab on Tuesday received its first batch of Covishield vaccine containing 20,450 vials.

Each vial carries 10 doses which will be given to already identified key workers in two doses, 28 days apart.

Bengal, NE states

The first consignment of 10 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccines — 6.89 lakh for Bengal and the rest for nearby states arrived in a special cargo flight from Pune’s Serum Institute.

The vaccines, kept in around 58 boxes, were ferried from the city airport, where it landed around 1.40 pm, in two insulated vans — one to state-owned Central Family Welfare Stores at Bagbazar and another to the Government Medical Store Depot in Hastings.

The rest of over three lakh vaccines will be sent off from the central depot to states in the northeastern part of the country, and also to Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The vaccines, to be sent to other states, have been stored in a facility in Hastings.

Assam, Meghalaya

The first consignment of 2.40 lakh vials of COVID-19 vaccine for Assam and Meghalaya landed at the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International (LGBI) Airport. A freighter ferried 20 large boxes, weighing over 730 kg and containing 2,40,000 vaccine doses.

Each box has 12,000 doses of vaccine. The boxes were handed over to the representatives of the health department of both the state governments within the stipulated nine minutes of arrival.

Kerala

Kerala will receive the first consignment of over 4.33 lakh doses of Covishield vaccine to combat COVID-19 on Wednesday. The first flight carryingthe vaccine is expected to reach Kochi’s Nedumbassery airport at 2 pm on Wednesday and by 6 pm, another set will reach the Thiruvananthapuram airport.

Of the 4,33,500 lakh vaccine doses, 1,100 would be sent to Mahe, which is an enclave of Puducherry and lies between Kozhikode and Kannur districts.

Chhattisgarh

The Chhattisgarh government on Tuesday said the state will get 3.23 lakh doses of Covishield, the COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), as part of the first batch of consignment for the upcoming vaccination drive.

The consignment is likely to reach Raipur on Wednesday, but so far no official confirmation has been received from the Centre about the delivery date.

with PTI inputs