Nine flights to 12 cities leave Pune with Covid vaccine doses
Pune Tuesday morning saw an otherwise quiet Lohegaon airport in Pune witness high drama as the country’s first batch of Covishield vaccine doses left for 12 different cities on nine passenger and freight flights
Pune Tuesday morning saw an otherwise quiet Lohegaon airport in Pune witness high drama as the country’s first batch of Covishield vaccine doses left for 12 different cities on nine passenger and freight flights.
After the vaccine doses were packed in ice boxes at the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), the airport authorities played a pivotal role in ensuring that the vaccines reached the rest of the country in time. Three domestic airlines transported close to 5.6 million doses on the first day to kick-start the massive pan-India inoculation drive against Covid-19 infection.
After a year of fighting through the pandemic, the first consignment of Covishield consisting of 2,64,000 doses was transported from Pune to Delhi on SpiceJet flight SG 8937. The flight took off from the Lohegaon International Airport at 8.05am and landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi, at 10.15am. Along with Delhi, Spicejet also transported multiple vaccines to Guwahati, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bhubaneshwar, Bengaluru, Patna and Vijayawada. In addition to Spicejet, GoAir and Indigo also sent doses to Chennai, Chandigarh and Lucknow respectively.
For Mumbai, GoAir in its statement said starting from January 13, the vaccines will be transported from Mumbai to other cities on the basis of the allocation. A spokesperson from the Serum Institute added that a truck would leave via road to the Mumbai airport and from there to other cities. The spokesperson added that, “Two trucks would leave for the Mumbai airport via road from our Pune institute and from there it would go to other cities.”
{{/usCountry}}For Mumbai, GoAir in its statement said starting from January 13, the vaccines will be transported from Mumbai to other cities on the basis of the allocation. A spokesperson from the Serum Institute added that a truck would leave via road to the Mumbai airport and from there to other cities. The spokesperson added that, “Two trucks would leave for the Mumbai airport via road from our Pune institute and from there it would go to other cities.”
{{/usCountry}}Union aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri tweeted on Tuesday morning, “Together nine flights will leave Pune through four carriers - Air India, SpiceJet, GoAir & Indigo - with 56.5 lakh doses to Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Shillong, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Bengaluru, Lucknow & Chandigarh.”
{{/usCountry}}Union aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri tweeted on Tuesday morning, “Together nine flights will leave Pune through four carriers - Air India, SpiceJet, GoAir & Indigo - with 56.5 lakh doses to Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Shillong, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Bengaluru, Lucknow & Chandigarh.”
{{/usCountry}}The first aeroplane took flight with the Covid-19 vaccine ‘Covishield’ from the Serum Institute of India at around 8am with the first consignment. Three trucks left the institute at around 4:55am. A total of nine flights carried vials of the vaccine from Pune’s Lohegaon airport with 477 boxes, including three chartered freight flights which had close to 5.6 million doses. Each box contained about 1,200 vials of Covishield and each of the dose is priced for the Indian government at ₹210, including GST of ₹10. Each vial has about 10 doses which were packed in ice boxes.
As per earlier statements from the Oxford University and Serum Institute, each person would need to get two doses for maximum protection against the virus. Each dose is about 5ml and the second dose needs to be taken 28 days after the first dose. The vaccine needs to be stored between +2-+8 degrees Celsius which led to a speedy movement of all the boxes within the first two hours since the airport started operating at 8am.
The last flight for the day left was to leave at 4pm to Lucknow according to airport officials. Pune airport director Kuldeep Singh, said, “Earlier 14 flights were to leave from Pune’s Lohegaon airport with the Covid-19 vaccine in 456 boxes, however, plans were changed last night. A total of nine flights left from the airport of which three were chartered flights. Pune airport has always been prepared for vaccine transportation. As of yet, we do not have any plans for vaccine transportation on Wednesday.”
The vaccines transported were packed with ice packs in thermocol boxes. As per the details on the box being transported, the vials were manufactured in October 2020 and have an expiry date of March 2021.