Stand by India, Ready get set go! The vaccine to kill the disease is out

New Delhi, Jan 12: Early this morning, the first batch of Covishield, the Serum Institute of India's coronavirus vaccine was sent out from Pune, four days ahead of the nationwide inoculation drive against the virus.

PTI reported that amidst tight security, three temperature-controlled trucks carrying Covishield vaccines left the Serum Institute of India gates. A puja performed before vehicles left facility.

From Pune Airport, the vaccines were dispatched to 13 cities. Ready get set go! Stand by India! The vaccine to kill the disease is being loaded into the aircraft for distribution all over the country now, Pune Airport tweeted earlier today.

Aviation Minister, Hardeep Puri tweeted, 'civil aviation sector launches yet another momentous mission. "Today, Air India, SpiceJet and IndiGo Airlines 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," he said in another tweet.

"We will be carrying multiple vaccine consignments to different Indian cities including Guwahati, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar, Bengaluru, Patna and Vijayawada through the day today. SpiceJet is fully committed and prepared to transport the Covid vaccine both within and outside India. Today marks the beginning of a long and decisive phase in India's fight against the pandemic and SpiceJet is proud to assist in the biggest vaccination drive in the history of mankind," SpiceJet said in a statement.

Starting January 16, the vaccines would be rolled out. The government has said that 30 crore people starting with healthcare workers and frontline workers like the police, civil defence personnel and sanitisation workers will be administered the vaccine in the first phase.