Covaxin arrives in Delhi; 20,000 doses to reach Rajiv Gandhi Hospital

New Delhi: After acquiring Covishield, Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital (RGSSH) would now receive 20,000 doses of Bharat Biotech's Covid vaccine from a consignment which landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) here on Wednesday morning, officials told IANS.

The doses are expected to reach the hospital by 1 pm, which will double-up as the national capital's only vaccine storage facility, they added.

"We are told that we would receive 20,000 doses from the consignment," confirmed BL Sherwal, Director, RGSSH.

The first consignment of the Bharat Biotech's Covaxin was carried to the IGIA Avia Air India flight AI559 which operated from Hyderabad. It landed in Delhi at around 9 am, officials from IGIA informed.

Bharat Biotech aims to dispatch around 55 lakh vaccines to 11 states in the initial phase, including Delhi, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Chennai and Jaipur.

The RGSSH has already received 2.64 lakh doses of Covid vaccine on Tuesday. The hospital has received 22 boxes consisting of 26,400 vials of Covishield, the Covid vaccine by the Serum Institute of India (SII).

"Total 22 boxes of vaccines have been received here. Each box contains 1200 vials and each vial has 10 doses," Chhavi Gupta, spokesperson of the hospital told IANS