New Delhi: Ahead of the first phase of the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive scheduled to start from January 16. Vaccine transportation has already started from Pune to 13 locations across the country.

The first consignment containing vials of the Covishield vaccine were dispatched from the Serum Institute of India here in the early hours of Tuesday. Covishield is among the two coronavirus vaccines in India that have been given approval for emergency use authorisation.

Earlier today, Amid tight security, three trucks carrying the very first consignment of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine left for Pune airport to be flown to 13 locations across the country today.

56.5 lakh vaccine doses transported to these cities:

56.5 lakh doses of vaccines are being transported to Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Shillong, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Bengaluru, Lucknow and Chandigarh, from Pune, informed Union Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri

“Civil aviation sector launches yet another momentous mission. Vaccine movement starts. First two flights operated by SpiceJet and GoAir from Pune to Delhi and Chennai have taken off,” he tweeted.

Today @airindiain @flyspicejet @goairlinesindia & @IndiGo6E will operate 9 flights from Pune with 56.5 lakh doses to Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Shillong, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Bengaluru, Lucknow & Chandigarh.

— Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) January 12, 2021

“Today Air India, SpiceJet, GoAir and IndiGo will operate nine flights from Pune with 56.5 lakh doses to Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Shillong, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Bengaluru, Lucknow and Chandigarh,” Puri added.

The first consignment of 2,76,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine ‘Covidshield’ arrived in Ahmedabad from Pune. D Patel, Additional Director, Family Welfare, Gujarat Government said that 2.76 lakh doses of the vaccines will be given to Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar and Bhavnagar zones. Vaccination will begin at 287 session sites from January 16.

कोरोना वैक्सीन की पहली खेप पहुंची दिल्ली, कोरोना के नए मामले भी हुए कम…
|#CoronaVaccine #Delhi| pic.twitter.com/FvWWYzaM4v

— Newsroompost (@NewsroomPostCom) January 12, 2021

Vaccination drive to start on January 16

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier said around 3 crore healthcare workers and frontline workers will be vaccinated in the first phase of vaccination.  In the second phase, those above 50 years and those under 50 years with co-morbid conditions will be vaccinated.

Serum Institute of India (SII) has already received a purchase order from the Government of India for 11 million doses of Covishield vaccine, which would be available at the price of Rs 200 per dose, SII officials had said on Monday