Security beefed up outside SII ahead of COVID-19 vaccination drive

Security has been beefed up outside the Serum Institute ahead of the massive COVID-19 vaccination drive in India. Fifteen police officers have been deployed and vehicles are checked thoroughly.

Pune: With the much-awaited coronavirus vaccine drive to kick start in India from January 16, all eyes are now set on Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII). Ample police security has been deployed outside the institute and security has been beefed up to ensure that the vaccines are dispatched safely to various parts of the country.

On January 3, two vaccines - Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield manufactured by Serum Institute of India - were approved for restricted emergency use.

"Fifteen police personnel have been deployed outside SII to ensure safe movement of vehicles that will carry the vaccine from Pune to Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Bangalore. Vehicles coming in and out of the institute are being thoroughly inspected to avoid any untoward incident," an official said.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) said it is fully geared to deploy its resources to facilitate transportation of COVID-19 vaccine across the country from Pune. The AAI-operated airport at Lohegaon shares the runway with the IAF.

The roll-out of Covid-19 vaccine will give priority to the healthcare and frontline workers who are estimated to be around 3 crores, followed by those above 50 years of age and the under-50 population groups with comorbidities numbering around 27 crores.

As the vaccinators and vaccine administrators comprise a crucial pillar of the vaccination exercise, their training process was detailed out. A total of 2,360 participants were trained during the national level 'Training of Trainers' which comprised state immunisation officials, cold chain officials, IEC officials, and development partners, among others.

More than 61,000 programme managers, 2 lakh vaccinators and 3.7 lakh other vaccination team members have been trained so far as part of the training in the state, district and block levels.

With agency inputs