• The central government on Monday ordered 11 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from Serum Institute of India
  • Civil aviation sector launches yet another momentous mission, said minister Hardeep Singh Puri

India is all set to begin its nationwide COVID-19 inoculation drive, starting 16 January. The first flight carrying the Covishield vaccine, reached the national capital on Tuesday morning. The SpiceJet flight SG8937 departed the Pune airport at 8.05 am landed at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport around 10.15 am. The first consignment of Covishield consisted of 34 boxes and weighing 1088 kg, Ajay Singh, chairman and managing director, SpiceJet.

“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.

“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.

To fight against novel coronavirus, the country earlier granted emergency approval to two vaccines — Covishield by Serum Institute of India and Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech. In the first phase of the COVID-19 vaccination drive, health workers, both from government and private institutions, will be vaccinated along with sanitation workers, other frontline workers, defence forces, police and other paramilitary forces, the Prime Minister said

"Civil aviation sector launches yet another momentous mission. Vaccine movement starts," tweeted Union aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri. He added four airlines will operate nine flights to transport 56.5 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccine from Pune to 13 cities across the country on Tuesday.

"Today @airindiain @flyspicejet @goairlinesindia & @IndiGo6E will operate 9 flights from Pune with 56.5 lakh doses to Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Shillong, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Bengaluru, Lucknow & Chandigarh," Puri said.

The central government on Monday ordered 11 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from Serum Institute of India, the Pune-based pharmaceutical firm confirmed. The cost of the vaccine to the government would be ₹200 per vaccine dose for first 100 million doses, the drugmaker noted.

COVID-19 cases rose by 12,584 on Tuesday — the lowest daily increase in several months — to 10.48 million and number of deaths increased by 167 to 151,327.

News Source: livemint.com

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