The second consignment of the COVID-19 vaccine has reached Lokopriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport, Guwahati on Wednesday. The cargo flight of a private airline carrying 12,000 doses of indigenously developed 'Covaxin' reached today.
The freighter ferried three boxes, weighing around 78.5 kg, of the COVID vaccine from Hyderabad, he said.
"The consignment was shipped by Bharat Biotech and handed over to state government officials within six minutes of its arrival," a spokesperson of the Airport Authority of India said.
According to a PTI report, all the formalities were completed before the arrival of the flight for quick transportation of the vaccines directly from the aircraft.
A consignment of COVID vaccine for Manipur is expected to arrive at the airport during the day, the official said.
The LGBI Airport has been marked as the nodal point of distribution of vaccines for the North East and it is equipped to transport such consignments to the regional states, he said. The first batch of 2.40 lakh vials of COVID-19 vaccine for Assam and Meghalaya had landed at the airport here on Tuesday.
The Assam health department has kept the vaccines at a state-run store and will start distribution of it soon, a state government official said. Assam will launch the vaccination programme on January 16 with priority to be given to healthcare and frontline workers, he said.
"We will roll out the drive from 74 sites across Assam, and 1,85,235 state health workers and 5,524 personnel from central medical agencies have registered their names for the programme," the official added.
