Chennai receives first batch of COVID-19 vaccines

Chennai on Tuesday received the first batch of COVID-19 vaccine 'Covishield', informed an official notification.

Tamil Nadu Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan informed that 5.56 lakh COVID vaccine doses have been dispatched from Pune for Tamil Nadu.

Speaking to , the health secretary said, "5.56 lakh vaccine doses have been dispatched from Pune. The dispatch details of remaining 20,000 doses of COVAXIN are yet to be received."

"Once it arrives at the state vaccine centre, we will be reinsuring that everything is in place. It will be distributed further to 10 regional centres and 51 walk-in coolers at the district level by today evening. Later, it will go to the actual vaccination site in cold boxes," TN Health Secretary added.

"We should encourage scientific temper and go by the experts. Information Education and Communication (IEC) material has also been provided at the vaccination centres," he added.

Ahead of the first phase of the COVID-19 vaccination drive scheduled to start from January 16, vaccine transportation has started from Pune to 13 locations across the country, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Tuesday.

In a series of tweets, the Minister said 56.5 lakh doses of vaccines are being transported to Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Shillong, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Bengaluru, Lucknow and Chandigarh, from Pune.

"Civil aviation sector launches yet another momentous mission. Vaccine movement starts. First two flights operated by SpiceJet and GoAir from Pune to Delhi and Chennai have taken off," he tweeted.

( With inputs from ANI )