2 lakh Covid vaccine doses for Punjab arrive at Mohali airport

Nitin Jain

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, January 12

The first consignment of Covid vaccine Covishield, manufactured by Serum Institute of India, arrived in Punjab on Tuesday.

The first consignment contains 2.04 lakh doses.

The consignment arrived at the Chandigarh International Airport in Mohali around 1 pm. Airport CEO Ajay Bhardwaj confirmed the arrival.

Hussan Lal, Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, told The Tribune that after receiving the vaccine at the airport, the state government would transport it under tight security in specially-fabricated vaccination vans to its state vaccine store in Sector 24, Chandigarh.

Lal said the vaccine would be dispatched to various districts across the state on Wednesday.

The district administrations will store the vaccine at their respective vaccine stores.

The Central Government had announced that the national vaccination drive would begin on January 16, with priority to be given to healthcare and frontline workers in the first phase of the drive.

“Both healthcare and frontline workers will be vaccinated for free,” informed the Health Secretary, adding that “the first consignment of vaccine has also been provided for free by the Centre to the state.

He reiterated that all logistics, systems and processes for COVID-19 vaccination were in place after checking them repeatedly during the dry runs at all 22 districts in the state.