Millions of doses of the Oxford / AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine left the Serum Institute of India’s warehouses early Tuesday as the country of 1.3 billion people prepares to carry out the shot.
The first groups were loaded onto flights in Pune and Chennai on Tuesday morning, with nine flights with 5.7 million doses en route to 13 cities, including Delhi and Bengaluru, according to Hardeep Singh Puri, Indian civil aviation minister.
The Serum Institute of India is the largest manufacturer of vaccines in the world. It conducted trials and manufactured the AstraZeneca vaccine for distribution across the country.
According to a source with knowledge of the agreement, the Indian government has agreed to purchase each dose of the vaccine at Rs 200 ($ 2.72).
“Serum Institute of India has received an order for approximately 11 million doses of the vaccine from the Indian government,” the source said.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country expects to vaccinate 300 million people in the next few months.
“We already have a universal vaccination mechanism that has been strengthened for Covid vaccination … Covid protocols will have to be implemented through this, even a little debauchery could cause damage,” Modi said at a meeting on Monday.
India has registered a total of 10.5 million cases, including 151,327 deaths since the onset of the pandemic, the world’s third highest death toll. On Tuesday, the lowest daily increase was in cases in nearly seven months, with 12,584 new infections.