A fire broke out at "Serum Institute of India," the largest vaccine production facility in India and the world, which produces millions of doses of the Covishield vaccine against COVID-19.
According to Agence France-Presse today, footage broadcast by local television stations showed a massive gray smoke cloud above the Serum Institute in Pune, western India, where millions of doses of the Covishield vaccine, developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, are produced. The agency mentioned that a source at the Serum Institute confirmed that the vaccine production facility was not affected, and this would not impact production, explaining that the fire broke out in a new factory under construction.
A regional fire department official stated that six fire trucks had been dispatched to the scene, noting that there is no information yet about the extent of the fire or whether anyone was trapped, along with police teams arriving at the site.
The CEO of the institute, Adar Poonawalla, reassured all governments and the public via a tweet that there would be no loss in Covishield production due to the multiple production buildings that have been maintained to manage such emergencies. It is worth noting that India is the second most affected country by the pandemic after the United States, with more than 10 million cases, and has the lowest mortality rate globally. At the beginning of January, emergency approval was granted for the AstraZeneca vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and produced by the Serum Institute of India, as well as the Covaxin vaccine manufactured by the local company Bharat Biotech.
It is important to mention that the vaccination campaign against COVID-19 in India faced difficulties on its first days due to a malfunction in the "Co-WIN" application developed by the government, which is used to coordinate the campaign and is supposed to notify healthcare workers on the front lines, who are set to be the first to receive the vaccine, while allowing officials to monitor and manage the campaign.
