The first consignment of 6.89 lakh Covishield vaccine doses reached the state by air at Kolkata Airport from the Pune based Serum Institute of India on Tuesday, the Home Department tweeted.
The State's Home Department also added that these "vaccines shall be stored at our Central Vaccines Store at Baghbazar and from their it will be transported to different districts for vaccination of Health Care Workers as per priority".
These vaccines shall be stored at our Central Vaccines Store at Baghbazar and will be then transported to different districts for vaccination of Health Care Workers as per priority.(2/2)
— HOME DEPARTMENT - GOVT. OF WEST BENGAL (@HomeBengal) January 12, 2021
The vaccines will be dispatched from the depot to various districts on Wednesday. Five walk-in-cooler and four walk-in-freezers have been installed in the Baghbazar store to keep the vaccines, the official said.
Ahead of nationwide mega vaccine rollout from January 16, India's first consignment of Covid vaccine "Covishield" was transported from Pune to 13 locations across the country on Tuesday.
Covishield is developed by Oxford University and British-Sweden company AstraZeneca and manufactured by the Serum Institute Of India (SII). The rollout of Covid-19 vaccine will give priority to the healthcare and frontline workers who are estimated to be around 3 crore, followed by those above 50 years of age and under-50 population groups with comorbidities numbering around 27 crore.
The first 100 million doses of the vaccine has been provided to the government at cost of Rs 200 per dose.
On January 3,the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) gave a go-ahead to two vaccines, Covishield by the Serum Institute Of India and Covaxin by Bharat Biotech. Questions were raised on the clearances given to Covaxin without phase-3 trials. The government, as well as Bharat Biotech, have, however maintained that the vaccines is '100 per cent safe'.
Three temperature-controlled trucks rolled out of the Serum Institute gates shortly before 5 am and left for Pune airport, from where the vaccines flown across India. The trucks carried 478 boxes of the vaccines, each box weighing 32 kg, a source involved in the vaccine transport arrangements told PTI.
The trucks left the SII premises at Manjari and reached airport, located 15 km from the facility. From the airport, the vaccines was dispatched to 13 locations across the country. A 'puja' was performed before the vehicles left the facility.
In the morning, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had posted on Twitter that the four carriers would operate nine flights from Pune to ferry 56.5 lakh doses of the vaccine to Delhi, Chenai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Ahmedabad, Shillong, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Bhubaneswar, Bengaluru, Patna, Lucknow and Chandigarh.
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.
— Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) January 12, 2021
Meanwhile, the State added 751 Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours taking the total cases to 5,62,072. The State also recorded 18 deaths in the past 24 hours taking the total number of fatalities to 9,975. The recovery rate in the State improved to 96.91 percent and the number of active cases stands at 7,392.
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