At least five people have been killed after a huge fire broke out on Thursday at the site of the world’s largest vaccine producer in the West Indies.
Images of Reuters partner ANI showed that black smoke came from a building still under construction at the Serum Institute of India’s facilities in the city of Pune. The fire was brought under control, but officials later announced that five people had been killed.
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‘We have just received disturbing updates; Upon closer inspection, we learned that there was an unfortunate danger to life during the incident, “said Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India. tweeted. “We are very sad and express our deepest condolences to the families of the deceased.”
Murlidhar Mohol, mayor of Pune city in the southern state of Maharashtra, said the bodies found in the rubble after the fire was extinguished were probably construction workers, according to The Associated Press. The cause of the fire is currently unclear.
Serum Institute of India has been contracted to produce approximately 50 million doses per month of vaccine developed by Oxford University and Astrazeneca at other facilities in the complex. Poonawalla said in an interview with The Associated Press last month that he intends to increase production from 1.5 billion doses to 2.5 billion annually by 2021. The plant under construction was part of the expansion, but Poonawalla said the fire would not affect production. of the vaccine, locally known as Covishield.
“I want to assure all governments and the public that there will be no loss of #COVISHIELD production due to several production buildings I have kept in reserve to handle such situations at @SerumInstIndia,” he said. tweeted.
India recently approved the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine for emergency use earlier this month along with another developed in the country. Approval for AstraZeneca shot in US appears to be on hand.
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