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As vaccine trucks leave Serum campus, India starts fight to end Covid in country
At the stroke of 4:53 am, the gates opened, a police escort van remerged; it was followed by three trucks, with boxes carrying 5.65 million doses of the vaccine meant for Delhi, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Patna, Bengaluru, and Lucknow.
Early on Tuesday morning, a runner out for his morning run stopped in his tracks after seeing a group of people, including many with cameras outside the gates of Serum Institute of India’s (SII) Hadapsar campus in the city. There was a nip in the air, but those waiting didn’t seem to mind it.
The crowd outside the gates heard the hum of the engines of the temperature controlled truck that would carry the first Oxford University-AstraZeneca Covishield vaccines to be produced by the company.
Traces of anxiety from the five days leading upto Tuesday morning was tangible as Pune police officers along with employees of the SII performed a traditional puja (prayer) of the first truck and decked it with a garland shortly before it moved out of the sprawling campus of the vaccine manufacturer.
At the stroke of 4:53 am, the gates opened, a police escort van remerged; it was followed by three trucks, with boxes carrying 5.65 million doses of the vaccine meant for Delhi, Chennai in Tamil Nadu, Ahmedabad in Gujarat, Hyderabad in Telangana, Chandigarh, Kolkata in West Bengal, Patna in Bihar, Bengaluru in Karnataka, and Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. They were headed for Lohegaon airport, around 15 kilometres from the factory.
The gravity of the moment dawned upon the drivers of the trucks as the crowd present at the gates erupted in spontaneous applause that pierced the silence of the morning. At least six armed guards were seen outside the SII gates along with a team of police officials who had been on standby since Monday morning as the uncertain departure timings were set and cancelled multiple times.
The vaccines, produced under licence by SII , and developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford will form the new vanguard of India’s fight against the coronavirus disease. Vaccinations are to start on January 16, with 30 million health care and front line workers forming the first cohort that will be vaccinated.
Adar Poonawalla, chief executive officer of SII, spoke to the media hours after the flights had taken off. SII executives’ absence at the gates had promoted deputy police commissioner Namrata Patil to take lead and perform the puja.
“Our trucks left the SII facility early morning and now the vaccine is being distributed across the entire country. This is a proud and historic moment as scientists, experts and all other stakeholders took great efforts while making this vaccine in less than a year,” Poonawala said.
Soon, the trucks entered the cargo-loading section of the Pune International Airport. Packed in boxes covered in styrofoam, the vaccines were scanned by four different machines of four different airlines - SpiceJet, IndiGo, GoAir, and Air India before taking to the air..
The SpiceJet flight was the first to take off at 8.05 am with 56 boxes of vaccine vials . Soon eight other flights took off from Pune airport for various destinations. The endgame of India’s fight against Covid-19 had begun.
