Vaccine transport from SII to start from January 11/12
With the COVID-19 vaccination drive in India set to roll out on January 16, transportation of the Covishield vaccine from the Serum Institute of India's facility in Pune, is likely to start from the evening of January 11 or January 12, sources involved in logistics planning said on Sunday. Vaccine-laden trucks will move out from the Manjari location of the SII under police security.
'Transportation of the Covishield vaccine will start from Monday'
"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," sources said.
Maharashtra Government to provide police security to trucks carrying vaccine
India's COVID-19 vaccination drive will start from January 16, with priority to three crore health care and frontline workers. Covishield has been co-developed by the University of Oxford and British-Swedish company AstraZeneca in collaboration with the SII. The Maharashtra Government has decided to provide police security to the trucks carrying the vaccine up to airports and borders of the state.
Kool-Ex Cold Chain Ltd. is lead vendor for vaccine movement
"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 informed. "About 300 GPS-fitted trucks will be used and 500 trucks will be roped in if needed," Agarwal said.
'Security cover would be given for 10 to 15 days'
On Saturday, Pune Police Commissioner Amitabh Gupta held a meeting with representatives of the Kool-ex to streamline the convoy system for the trucks carrying the vaccine. "We had a meeting with them. We told them that since trucks would start their journey from Pune, a security cover would be given for the initial period of 10 to 15 days," he had said.
