With the COVID-19 vaccination drive in India set to roll out on January 16, the transportation of Covishield vaccine from the Serum Institute of India’s facility in Pune in Maharashtra is likely to start from the evening of January 11 or on January 12, sources involved in planning the logistics said on Sunday.
The vaccine-laden trucks will move out from the Manjari location of the SII with elaborate police security.
The Central government on Saturday said India will launch its COVID-19 vaccination drive from January 16, with priority to be given to nearly three crore health care and frontline workers.
“With all likelihood, there are possibilities that the transportation of the Covishield vaccine will start from Monday. Tentatively, there are plans to start the movement of the vaccine on Monday, but if that does not happen for some reason, it will definitely start from Tuesday morning,” said the sources involved in the planning for security and logistics for transportation of the vaccine.
Covishield is co-developed by the University of Oxford and British-Swedish company AstraZeneca in collaboration with the SII.
The Maharashtra government has already decided to provide police security to the trucks carrying the vaccine up to airports and to the borders of the state.
“A cold chain logistics service provider – Kool-Ex Cold Chain Ltd is the lead vendor for the movement of the vaccine from the SII factory to 48 primary government locations (depots) in the first leg,” company’s co-founder Rahul Agarwal had said.