Five individuals were killed due to the fire that erupted at one of the biggest vaccine-making facilities in the world, a complex of Serum Institute of India, which is producing millions of doses of coronavirus vaccine of the Oxford/AstraZeneca.
Based on a report, the fire broke out in a building that is still under construction on Thursday afternoon inside the 100-acre site in Pune, which is a southwestern city in the country.
According to CBS News, despite the quick response coming from the authorities as they were able to put the fire under control on Thursday evening, still, at least two of the top floors were gutted of the five-story building.
The CEO and the owner of the Serum Institute of India, Adar Poonawalla shared in a statement that they are all in extreme sorrow at Serum Institute of India after what happened.
Poonawalla also mentioned that regrettably, there were losses of lives in the fire, but he shared that the families of the victims would be offered compensation of around $34,000 each aside from the mandated payout that they are about to receive.
Murlidhar Mohol, the Mayor of Pune has confirmed that five individuals have died in the fire incident and the victims' bodies were recovered from the charred floors of the building.
Earlier in the day, the CEO and the owner of the Serum Institute of India, Poonawalla mentioned that the production of the COVID-19 vaccine that is produced in India under the brand name of Covishield, will not be affected by the fire.
According to the Police and fire officials, they will be further investigating the fire as the cause of it was not immediately identified.
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Last week, the Serum Institute started to ship out hundreds of thousands of Covishield and the company has mentioned that they are targeting at least 100 million doses produced by March.
On Saturday, India launched what has been described as the biggest mass-vaccination in the world as the government plans to immunize a target of 300 million individuals by July.
Along with the Covishield shots, India will also be using Covaxin, which is a domestic vaccine that is produced by Bharat Biotech.
The company Serum Institute of India is the largest vaccine manufacturer by volume as the facility can produce 1.5 billion doses yearly of drugs to fight a range of diseases which includes diphtheria, hepatitis B, tetanus, rubella, measles, and mumps, Reuters reported.
The company's products are exported to more than 170 countries across the world.
Numerous middle- and low-income nations are relying on the Institute to supply the coronavirus vaccine stock of their country through the global, WHO-backed, or World HEalth Organization-back, COVAX plan.
The said project which aims to ensure the fair distribution of COVID-19 vaccines across the world has secured an order of 200 million doses from the facility of Serum.
Several African and Central Asian countries are expecting to get their first shipments of Covishield in the next few weeks, including Nepal and Bangladesh, New York Post reported.
The country of India had exported the first batches of the Oxford-formulated vaccine from Serum to Bhutan and the Maldives on Wednesday.
