Delhi airport set to receive first consignment of Covishield vaccines arriving from Pune today

The first lot of Covid-19 vaccines is to arrive at Delhi airport from Pune on Tuesday morning aboard a SpiceJet flight. Later in the day, an Air India flight is expected to fly in another consignment of the vaccines to Delhi from Pune.

The SpiceJet flight SG8937 departed the Pune airport at 8.05am and is expected to land at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport by 10.15am. At the Delhi airport, a team of the officials from the Airport Authority of India, ministry of civil aviation, health ministry, Delhi airport and Central Industrial Security Force officers is waiting to receive the vaccines that will be transported to designated hospitals in GPS-enabled trucks.

An official from the Delhi airport said that preparations have been made at the cargo terminals at Delhi airport and the staff is waiting to receive the vaccines, which will be stored in temperature-controlled units.

The Delhi Police have also made elaborate arrangements outside the airport to facilitate speedy and smooth movement of the vaccines to the hospitals.

Ajay Singh, chairman and managing director, SpiceJet, said the first consignment of Covishield consisting of 34 boxes and weighing 1088kg is on the way from Pune to Delhi.

“I am happy to share that SpiceJet has carried India’s first consignment of Covid-19 vaccines today [Tuesday]. We will be carrying multiple vaccine consignments to different Indian cities including Guwahati, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar, Bengaluru, Patna and Vijayawada through the day today,” Singh said.

He added that SpiceJet is fully committed and prepared to transport the Covid-19 vaccine both within and outside India. “Today marks the beginning of a long and decisive phase in India’s fight against the pandemic and SpiceJet is proud to assist in the biggest vaccination drive in the history of mankind,” he said.