SII CEO Adar Poonawalla
As nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive begins, Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla on Saturday received Covid-19 vaccine - Covidshield in Pune. Taking his Twitter handle, he shared a video of him being administrated Covishield. In his tweet, Poonawalla he wished Prime Minister Narendra Modi for launching the world’s largest COVID vaccination roll-out.
He tweeted, "I wish India and Sri Narendra Modi ji great success in launching the world’s largest COVID vaccination roll-out. It brings me great pride that COVISHIELD is part of this historic effort and to endorse it’s safety and efficacy, I join our health workers in taking the vaccine myself."
As much as 95 per cent of 1.1 crore Covishield vaccine doses purchased by the Indian government were delivered across the country a day after transportation of the vaccine began.
The first consignment of the Covishield vaccine against coronavirus from the Oxford/AstraZeneca stable rolled out of the Serum Institute of India manufacturing facility in Pune on Tuesday. Planes ferried vaccine consignments to 13 cities from Pune on the same day.
Prime Minister Modi launched India's COVID-19 vaccination drive in multiple states and UTs through an online medium in the morning and asserted that the made-in-India vaccines being rolled out will ensure a "decisive victory" for the country over the coronavirus pandemic.
As per the government scheme, vaccine shots will be administered first to an estimated one crore healthcare workers, and around two crore frontline workers, and then to persons above 50 years of age, followed by persons younger than 50 years of age with associated co-morbidities.
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