Guwahti News Desk: Four days ahead of the launch of a nationwide drive against the coronavirus, the first shipment of Covid19 vaccines reached Delhi from Pune on Tuesday.
A SpiceJet flight left for the national capital around 8 am and landed at around 10 am. The three trucks with the maiden shipment of the vaccines rolled out of the Serum Institute of India (SII) facility, 15 km from the Pune airport.
Hardeep Singh Puri, Civil Aviation Minister said a total of four airlines will operate nine flights to transport 56.5 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccine from Pune to 13 cities across the country.
A ‘puja’ was also performed before the vehicles left the facility.
Ajay Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, SpiceJet said, “I am happy to share that SpiceJet has carried India’s first consignment of COVID vaccine today. The first consignment of Covishield consisting of 34 boxes and weighing 1,088 kg was carried from Pune to Delhi on SpiceJet flight 8937.”
Covishield is developed by Oxford University and British-Swedish Company AstraZeneca, manufactured by the SII.
Photo | PTI