Bhubaneswar: A day after receiving the first consignment of COVID-19 vaccine Covishield from the Serum Institute of India (SII), the Odisha government received the 20,000 doses of another vaccine Covaxin on Wednesday.
The doses of Covaxin, jointly prepared by the Bharat Biotech and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), were taken from the Bharat Biotech’s Manufacturing Unit at the Genome Valley on the outskirts of the Hyderabad city to the airport. They were flown from there to various destinations including Bhubaneswar via an Air India cargo flight.
The vaccines, which arrived in a special cargo flight at the Biju Patnaik International Airport in the morning, were taken to the State Vaccines Stores at Mancheswar.
It has been decided that the Covaxin vaccination will also be launched in Bhubaneswar.
While the first batch of Covishield vaccines, which were sent to the Cuttack, Puri and Nayagarh districts on Tuesday, will be sent to another 15 districts on Wednesday while they will be sent to the remaining 12 districts on Thursday.
As per the schedule, the COVID-19 vaccination programme will be launched on January 16 at 160 sites in the state.
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