Bhubaneswar: The people of Odisha have another reason to smile as one day after receiving Oxford-Astrazeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine Covishield, the state received the first consignment of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin Wednesday morning.
Covaxin is the first indigenous COVID-19 vaccine manufactured in India by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Institute of Virology (NIV).
The consignment comprising as many as 20, 000 doses of the vaccine was transported in a specially designed truck with cooling system from Bharat Biotech’s manufacturing unit located at Genome Valley in Hyderabad to Hyderabad airport early Wednesday morning.
A special flight carrying the vaccine packets reached Biju Patnaik International Airport Wednesday morning.
The packets were first taken to the National Vaccine Van and then to the State Vaccine Store in Bhubaneswar.
Notably, SpiceJet’s Pune-Bhubaneswar cargo flight carrying the Covishield vaccine consisting of 34 boxes and weighing over 1,200 kg had arrived at the Biju Patnaik International Airport at 3:40 pm Tuesday.
Worth mentioning, member (Health) NITI Ayog, Dr VK Paul had Tuesday informed journalists in New Delhi that both the vaccines have been authorized for emergency use and there should be no concerns over their safety.
PNN