Govt begins sending first doses to states
PUNE/NEW DELHI: Supplies of the vaccine against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) began being dispatched from the Serum Institute of India’s (SII) manufacturing facility in Pune early Tuesday morning, with the first lot arriving in Delhi by a special flight hours later, days before the country begins a vaccination drive to inoculate 30 million health care and frontline workers.
Three trucks left carrying the vaccines packed in 477 boxes left the SII facility at around 4.55 am, from where it was sent to the Lohegaon airport to be further transported to the nine different cities in nine passenger and freight flights, officials said.
The SII is producing Covishield, the Oxford UniversityAstraZeneca vaccine against Covid-19, that has shown to be up to 90% effective against the viral disease.
SpiceJet flight SG8937 brought the very first consignment of vaccines to Delhi. It departed the Pune airport at 8.05am and landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport at 10.15am. Union aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri said Air India, SpiceJet, GoAir and Indigo operated nine flights from Pune with 5,650,000 doses to Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Shillong, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Bengaluru, Lucknow
and Chandigarh .
Each box contained about 1,200 vials of Covishield that was priced for the Indian government at ₹ 210, which includes ₹10 as goods and services tax (GST). Each vial has about 10 doses which were packed in ice boxes. The vaccine needs to be stored between 2-8° Celsius, due to which it was quickly moved within the first two hours after the airport started operating the special flights at 8 am.
At the Delhi airport, a team of the officials from the Airport Authority of India, ministry of civil aviation, health ministry, Delhi airport, as well as officers of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) received the vaccines. The vaccines were taken to the cargo terminal where they were stored in temperature-controlled units.
The supplies will further be distributed to close to 60 cold storage points spread across the country for the nationwide vaccination drive on January 16, officials aware of the development said.
The first step after a purchase is made is for the manufacturer to deliver supplies by air to the primary vaccine stores run by the Union health ministry, which are called Government Medical Stores Depot (GMSD).
There are four such large depots functional at the moment in the country, in Karnal, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. A manufacturer will deliver the vaccine to one of these depots or sometimes even multiple depots, depending on the agreement signed with the government.
From these main depots, the supplies will be diverted to two points in refrigerated or insulated vans. One of the deployment points is the state vaccine store, which are 56 in number spread across various states.
From there on, it will be the responsibility either of the state government or Union Territory (UT) administration to deploy the stock further as per the state requirement. From the state stores, the supplies will be sent in refrigerated and insulated vans to district vaccine stores, which are also temperature control facilities.
Adar Poonawalla, chief executive officer of SII, described the dispatch of Covishield vaccines f or the January 16 national inoculation drive a “proud and historic” moment.
“We have given a special price of ₹200 for the first 100 million doses only to the Government of India on their request because we want to support the common man, vulnerable, poor and healthcare workers,” he said, adding that the drugmaker will be selling doses of the vaccine at ₹1,000 in private markets.
Drugmaker AstraZeneca has said it would not profit from the vaccine during the pandemic.
As per earlier statements from Oxford University and Serum Institute, each person would need to get two doses of the vaccine for maximum protection against the virus. Each dose is about 5 ml and the second dose needs to be taken 28 days after the first dose.
Ajay Singh, chairman and managing director of SpiceJet, said the Pune to Delhi flight carried 34 boxes of Covishield weighing 1,088 kg. Air India said it carried its first consignment of 276,000 vaccine doses, weighing 700 kg, from Pune to Ahmedabad. IndiGo said it moved 900 kg from Pune to Chandigarh and Lucknow. GoAir said its first flight from Pune to Chennai carried 70,800 vials.
Initially, the deal is for procuring 11 million doses that is expected to cover the first phase of the vaccination drive involving 10 million healthcare workers across the country. There is also the plan to procure about 45 million more doses by April.
The government is keeping a margin of about 10%, to factor in wastage possibility of the vaccine, especially at the vaccination sites, officials said.
First to get the vaccine will be 30 million health care and other frontline workers, followed by about 270 million older than 50 or deemed highrisk.
We have given special price to the government because we want to support the common man
ADAR POONAWALLA, SII chief executive officer