India COVID-19 Vaccine: The consignment was brought was brought to the facility in Mumbai around 5.30 am.
The first batch of 1.39 lakh doses of the Covishield, the Serum Institute of India's coronavirus vaccine, arrived in Mumbai early this morning from Pune.
The consignment will be delivered across the city at designated vaccination centers for the inoculation drive set to begin on Saturday, Mumbai's civic body BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) said in a statement.
The civic body said that the consignment containing 1,39,500 doses of the vaccine was brought from the Serum Institute of India's Pune factory under the security of two police vehicles around 5.30 am. A ''puja'' was performed, along with the traditional breaking of coconuts, once the vehicle reached the storage facility in Panvel.
"The vaccine doses are being stored at a facility in F-South ward office situated in Parel," it stated.
The civic body has also created a centralised cold storage facility for vaccines in Kanjurmarg.
Nearly 1.30 lakh health workers from Mumbai have so far registered for vaccination, according to BMC officials.
Mumbai will have 72 inoculation centres, state Health Minister Rajesh Tope said in a release on Tuesday.
A minimum of 100 people will be vaccinated against COVID-19 at a single centre which will have a team of five personnel who will verify the SMS sent to the person to be inoculated, her or his identity and administer the vaccine.
"The necessary arrangement of electricity, Internet and webcasting service has been made at all these centres," Mr Tope said in the release.
On Tuesday, three temperature-controlled trucks rolled out of the Serum Institute gates carrying with 56.5 lakh doses of its COVID-19 vaccines. Apart from Mumbai, the vaccines were sent to 12 other locations for the massive pan-India inoculation drive which officials say will be the 'world's biggest'.
Mumbai added 473 fresh cases on Tuesday, taking its total tally to 2,99,796, Over 11,000 people have died in the city due to the virus, as per official figures.
With inputs from PTI