Apollo Hospitals and Dr Reddy's Laboratories on Monday declared their collaboration to initiate the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination programme with Sputnik V.
In this connection, a pilot programme has kickstarted in Hyderabad on Monday. A total of 1.5 lakh doses of Sputnik V have been imported by Dr.Reddy's and the inoculation drive will be held in Apollo Hospitals.
As per reports, after Hyderabad, the vaccination drive will be conducted in Apollo Hospitals at Visakhapatnam, Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata, and Pune.
The vaccinations would follow the SOPs as recommended by the government including registration on CoWIN.
Apollo Hospitals' Joint Managing Director Sangita Reddy said the healthcare major would receive 10 lakh doses of the COVID-19 vaccine over a period of one month.
"Delighted to share @HospitalsApollo has Ptnr with @drreddys 2 admin #SputnikV the 1st foreign-made #vaccine to be used in #India to all DRL staff. Additionally, we will be receiving 1 Mn doses (over 1 month period ) 4 our public #vaccinationdrive as #IndiaFightsCOVID19," she tweeted.
"This pilot phase will allow Dr Reddy's and Apollo to test the arrangements and cold chain logistics and prepare for the launch. We are confident that with the Sputnik V vaccine, we will be able to make a significant contribution to ease availability and access to COVID vaccines to the community at large," the hospital said in a statement.
"With the opening of the vaccination programme for the private sector, the healthcare major has intensified efforts to accelerate the rate of inoculation through opening vaccination centres across its hospital network," said Apollo Hospitals President Hospitals Division K Hari Prasad, adding, "We are also in discussions with corporates to undertake vaccination on their premises. We are currently administering COVID vaccine at 60 locations across the country including Apollo Hospitals, Apollo Spectra hospitals and Apollo Clinics".