Road and air transport deliver 11 mn doses of Covishield vaccines across India

The Serum Institute of India said it is now left with 9,000 vials, as part of purchase order placed by the Centre.

Through fair and road transport collectively, a total of 11 million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield vaccine produced at Serum Institute of India (SII), Pune, were delivered on Tuesday, according to Serum officials.

The first consignment of Covishield arrives at Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in a special SpiceJet flight from Pune, in New Delhi on January 12. Flights from Pune transported the vaccine, developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, and is marketed in India as Covishield, to Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Shillong, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Bengaluru, Lucknow and Chandigarh, while three trucks left for Mumbai in the evening, HT reported. (HT Photo)

There is no movement expected on the road on Wednesday, according to Pune airport authorities and a private logistics firm.

"What the firm is left with are 9,000 vials, as part of purchase order placed by the Centre," SII said in a statement. These 9,000 vials contain 90,000 doses.

The vaccines were delivered to Delhi, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Patna, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Shillong, Vijayawada, Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, by air. Of the nine flights which carried the load from Pune, eight left in the morning while one left in the evening.

The vials were carried to the airport in three trucks that left Serum at 5 am. Two trucks belonged to SII while one belonged to a company to which the major road transport has been outsourced.

Later in the evening, 6 more trucks left from Serum for Mumbai city, Mumbai airport, Surat, Baroda, Jhansi, and Belgaum, according to Kunal Agarwal, Co-founder of Koolex Cold Chain Solutions Pvt Ltd which provided the road movement support to Serum.