Millions of doses of the Oxford / AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine left the warehouses of the Serum Institute of India on Tuesday morning, while the country of 1.3 billion people is preparing to launch the vaccine.
The first batches were loaded on flights in Pune and Chennai on Tuesday morning, with nine flights carrying 5.7 million doses to 13 cities, including Delhi and Bengaluru, according to Hardeep Singh Puri, minister of civil aviation from India.
The Serum Institute of India is the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer. It carried out tests and manufactured the AstraZeneca vaccine for distribution throughout the country.
According to a source familiar with the deal, the Indian government has agreed to buy each dose of the vaccine for Rs 200 ($ 2.72).
“The Serum Institute of India has an order for approximately 11 million doses of vaccine from the Indian government,” said the source.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country hopes to vaccinate 300 million people in the coming months.
“We already have a universal immunization mechanism that has been strengthened for Covid’s vaccination … Covid protocols will have to be implemented during this, even a little slack can cause harm,” said Modi during a meeting on Monday.
India has recorded a total of 10.5 million cases, including 151,327 deaths since the start of the pandemic, the third highest number of deaths in the world. On Tuesday, he saw the smallest daily increase in cases in almost seven months, with 12,584 new infections.