1-km-away Covishield production unit safe, will not affect vaccine supply, says Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla
As many as five persons died in a fire that broke out at an under-construction building of India’s Covid-19 vaccine producer Serum Institute of India (SII’s) Gopal Patti plant in Pune on Thursday. Nine persons were evacuated safely.
SII CEO Adar Poonawalla, however, said that it will not hamper the supply of the Oxford-AstraZeneca “Covishield” vaccines, which are being manufactured some distance away from the spot of the fire.
The Manjari facility is where the Covishield vaccine used in the nationwide inoculation drive against the pandemic is made. The building where the fire broke out is part of the under-construction site of the Serum facility and is one km from the Covishield manufacturing unit, sources said.
“I would like to reassure all governments & the public that there would be no loss of #COVISHIELD production due to multiple production buildings that I had kept in reserve to deal with such contingencies at @SerumInstIndia,” Poonawalla tweeted.
“We have just received some distressing updates; upon further investigation we have learnt that there has unfortunately been some loss of life at the incident. We are deeply saddened and offer our deepest condolences to the family members of the departed,” Poonawalla added.
“Today is an extremely sorrowful day for all of us at SII. We’re deeply saddened & offer our condolences to families of the departed. We’ll be offering compensation of `25 Lakh to each family, in addition to mandated amount as per the norms,” said Cyrus Poonawalla, Chairman and MD, SII.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his grief tweeting: Anguished by the loss of lives due to an unfortunate fire at Serum Institute of India. In this sad hour, my thoughts are with the families of those who lost their lives. I pray that the injured recover at the earliest. President Ram Nath Kovind termed the deaths “distressing”.
Fire officials recovered the charred bodies during an inspection, Mayor Murlidhar Mohol said. He added that the five people who died were perhaps the workers at the under-construction building. “The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained but it is being speculated that welding, that was going on at the building, caused the fire,” Mohol said.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said the State Government has ordered a probe into the blaze. The fire, which broke out at 2.45 pm on the fourth and fifth floors of the SEZ 3 building on the SII premises, was brought under control in two hours, police said. Deputy Commissioner of Police Namrata Patil said that nine people were evacuated from the spot after the fire broke out.
Chief Fire Officer Prashant Ranpise said fifteen water tankers were pressed into action and the fire was brought under control around 4.30 pm.
“The exact cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained. Furniture, wiring, cabins were gutted. No major machinery or instruments were stored on the floors where the fire broke out,” he said.
“I have taken information from the Pune Municipal Corporation about the incident and instructed local officials to carry out a detailed probe into the fire,” Ajit Pawar said.
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray told reporters that as per initial information, an electrical fault caused the fire. “As per initial information, the fire did not erupt at the unit where the COVID-19 vaccine is being produced, but in the unit where the BCG vaccine is produced,” Thackeray said
The SII is the world’s largest maker of vaccines and has been contracted to manufacture a billion doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford University vaccine. Of the more than 12 billion coronavirus vaccine doses expected to be produced this year, many countries have already bought about 9 billion, and many have options to buy even more.
