Shortly around 5 a.m. on Tuesday, three temperature-controlled trucks- rolled out of the gates of the Serum Institute of India in Pune enroute to the airport. The cargo? The much awaited vaccines that will be flown across India.
A small puja was performed at the venue before the trucks moved 478 boxes of the vaccines, each box weighing 32 kg, news agency PTI reported citing officials involved in the vaccine transportation process.
COVID Flight: 34 boxes; weighing 1,088 kg
SpiceJet flight SG8937 was the first to leave Pune for consignment of vaccines for Delhi. It took off from Pune at 8.11 a.m. as per Flightradar24 and landed minutes after 9.50 a.m.
In his first comments, 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.”
Mr. Singh informed that SpiceJet will be carrying multiple vaccine consignments to different Indian cities including Guwahati, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar, Bengaluru, Patna and Vijayawada through the day on Tuesday.
“SpiceJet is fully committed and prepared to transport the COVID vaccine both within and outside India. 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.
The locations where these Covishield vaccines will be flown from Pune include Delhi, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Karnal, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Guwahati, Lucknow, Chandigarh and Bhubaneswar. Air India, GoAir and IndiGo are also involved in transporting the vaccines around India.
COVID Cargo Flights
The vaccines will be flown from Pune in eight commercial flights, including two cargo flights, officials said. The first cargo flight will cover Hyderabad, Vijayawada, and Bhubaneswar and the second cargo flight will go to Kolkata and Guwahati, he added.
The consignment for Mumbai will leave by road. Trucks belonging to Kool-ex Cold Chain Ltd are being used to ferry the vaccine stocks from Serum Institute.
