Serum Institute of India’s (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla on Saturday, joined hundreds of healthcare workers in the country to get the first jab of the COVID-19 vaccine on the inaugural day of the world's biggest inoculation drive. Poonawalla posted a video of him taking the vaccine shot in Pune.
Taking to twitter Poonawalla wrote, "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 its safety and efficacy, I join our health workers in taking the vaccine myself."
Poonawalla's SII, the largest vaccine manufacturer globally, has provided 11 million Covishield doses to the Centre. These doses are being administered to healthcare workers in the first phase of the inoculation drive being carried out across the country.
The Pune-based Serum Institute of India has developed the Covishield vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University while the Covaxin has been developed by Hyderabad's Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Medical Council of research (ICMR) and National Institute of Virology.
The drugs regulatory body of India has currently approved only these two vaccines.
Earlier today, PM Modi launched the vaccination drive against the novel coronavirus via video conferencing.
Touted to be the world's largest vaccination drive, in the phase which began today, it aims to inoculate an estimated 3 crore healthcare and frontline workers on prioirity basis.
A total of 3006 session sites across the length and breadth of the country was virtually connected during the launch. Around 100 beneficiaries will be vaccinated at each session site on the inaugural day, the Union Health Ministry said.
The SII also plans to export Covishield doses to Brazil in the coming days. As per the Company, around two million doses will be exported to Brazil in two weeks.
