Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the Serum Institute of India (SII) on Saturday to see the production of the Covid-19 vaccine and the proposed distribution plan, a senior official confirmed Thursday.
“We have received official confirmation on the Prime Minister’s visit to Pune on November 28. The Prime Minister will visit the Serum Institute, which is working on the production of the Covid-19 vaccine,” said Pune Divisional Commissioner Saurabh Rao .
However, there has not yet been an independent confirmation from the Prime Minister’s office on his visit.
Meanwhile, the administration has already held several meetings to prepare for Modi’s visit to Pune. The prime minister, according to officials, will visit various facilities on the SII’s Hadapsar campus, where the Pune firm has begun production of the Covishield vaccine.
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SII, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, has signed an agreement to manufacture the vaccine developed by the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford in collaboration with the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. Both the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca said Monday that their vaccine was up to 90% effective in late-stage clinical trials, raising hopes that it will arrive in India by the end of the year.
Rao said that Modi’s minute-by-minute show would be ready for the afternoon. “The prime minister’s visit will aim to review the status of the vaccine candidate for coronavirus infection and learn about its launch, production and distribution mechanisms,” said another district administration official.
Modi’s visit will precede the arrival of ambassadors and high commissioners from various countries to the Serum Institute of India in Pune on December 4 to oversee the production of the Covid-19 vaccine and the company’s distribution plan, once it obtains Regulatory approval for use. .
According to the itinerary released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the “familiarization” visit of the foreign ambassadors and high commissioners based in Delhi will be one day and in two groups. The ambassadors will visit the SII in the morning and spend about three hours visiting the facilities of the company’s Hadapsar campus. In the afternoon, they will arrive at Gennova Biopharmaceuticals Limited, which is also working on the production of another Covid-19 vaccine, at its Hinjewadi campus, before returning to Delhi.
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