Comments
Even as Kool-ex, the cold chain logistic company announced that it was fully geared to handle end-to-end supply chain of Covid-19 vaccine and parked its trucks in Serum Institute of India’s premises, transportation of Covishield didn’t start till Monday evening.
According to sources in SII, vaccine transportation will start on Tuesday morning and stocks will be taken to depots in Mumbai. While the vaccine will be transported in Maharashtra using trucks, stock for other States will be taken by air.
The Centre has announced the start of Covid-19 vaccination drive on January 16. Kool-ex, the Mumbai- based company, has got the contract to transport the vaccine made by Serum.
Trucks with a real-time GPS system and sensors to alert any break in temperature are ready. The Pune district and police administration are geared up and the State police will provide protection to trucks carrying Covishield.
Meanwhile, sources associated with SII refused to comment on reports that the Institute was negotiating the vaccine price with the government and that has delayed transportation. The source in SII said there was no negotiation and one Covishield will cost ₹210, including the GST, as decided earlier.
PTI reported that SII has received the purchase order for 11 million doses from the Centre for the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine. “We received the (purchase) order from the Government on Monday afternoon,” a senior SII official told PTI.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.