Hyderabad: A consignment of three million doses of Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V landed at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
“While GHAC has already handled several import shipments of vaccine prior to this, todays shipment of 56.6 tonnes of vaccines is the single largest import shipment of COVID-19 vaccines handled in India till date.This shipment completed all processes and was dispatched in less than 90 minutes,” said GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo (GHAC) in a press release.
The Sputnik V vaccine requires specialised handling and storage, required to be kept at a temperature of -20 C.GHAC has been working closely with the experts from the customers supply chain team, officials from customs department and other relevant stakeholders over an extended period of time to ensure that the necessary infrastructure and handling processes are fully in place at the Air Cargo Terminal for smooth handling of the vaccine shipments, it said.
Dr Reddy’s Laboratories is in a pact with Russian Direct Investment Fund to sell the first 125 million people doses (250 million vials) of SputnikV in India.
Sputnik V is the third vaccine to be cleared for use in India after Serum Institute of India’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.
Sputnik V, named after the first Soviet Space satellite, works on the principle of a weakened Covid virus delivering parts of a pathogen that triggers an immune response in the body.
The Apollo Group of Hospitals has announced that it will start administering Sputnik V across its hospitals in India from the second week of June at an estimated price of Rs 1,195 per dose.
