Vaccine producer Bharat Biotech has begun the supply of the second consignment comprising over 25 lakh doses of ‘Covaxin’ dosses to 22 cities over the country, including Delhi and Mumbai on Friday morning as India picks up the speed to vaccinate millions of people. Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, along with Serum Institute of India’s Covishield vaccine is a portion of the government’s mass vaccination program against Covid-19, which began on January 16.

A top source privy to the development said “The second consignment of Covaxin is being sent to 22 locations. By today evening or Saturday, the transportation will be over,”

According to the vaccine dispatch details, 25,66,860 doses of the vaccine in 1,28,343 vessels will be shipped. Each 10 ml vial holds 20 doses. They are to be operated from Hyderabad to the Government Medical Store Depot of Chennai, Karnal, Kolkata, and Mumbai. India’s indigenous vaccine is also slated to go to another place in Gannavaram in Andhra Pradesh, Kurukshetra, Patna, Lucknow, Guwahati, Kolkata Salt Lake, Jaipur, Gandhi Nagar, and Bhopal.

On January 13, three days before the initiation of the nationwide vaccination drive, the first tranche of 2.4 lakh Covaxin doses was flown to eleven cities — Andhra Pradesh, Guwahati, Patna, Delhi, Kurukshetra, Bengaluru, Pune, Bhubaneswar, Jaipur, Chennai, and Lucknow. Covaxin is India’s indigenous Covid-19 vaccine exhibited in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV).