First consignment of COVID-19 vaccines to reach 13 locations; transportation begins.

After a long wait for the Coronavirus vaccine, the first Covishield vaccine movement has begun from Pune’s Serum Institute of India (SII) with the Union Minister for Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri saying that nine flights will operate to transport 56.5 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccine from Pune to 13 cities across the country on Tuesday. The 13 locations where the first consignment of COVID-19 vaccinations will reach are Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Shillong, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Bengaluru, Lucknow and Chandigarh.

Advertisement

The first flight (Spicejet’s flight SG 8937) carrying Covishield vaccine has arrived from Pune to Delhi around 10 AM with SpiceJet confirming the Pune to Delhi consignment from its official twitter handle by saying “SpiceJet is proud to begin transporting India’s first consignment of #COVID19vaccine today. Pictured here is the first consignment of #Covishield arriving from Pune to Delhi on SpiceJet flight 8937. We are committed towards timely commencement of this historic vaccination drive.”

Videh Kumar Jaipuriar, CEO – Delhi International Airport Limited said “Today, 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 temperature required for these vaccines at the cargo terminal and during transit between aircraft and terminal or vice versa. Our both the terminals can handle around 5.7 million vials in a day”.

“We have synergized and collaborated with all the stakeholders including exporters, importers, logistics companies, freight forwarders/agents, government, airlines, cargo terminal operators, to ensure faster turnaround of the vaccines.” he added.