A fire reportedly broke out at a COVID-19 manufacturing plant in India, sending huge clouds of grey smoke into the sky.
According to reports, the fire broke out at the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s biggest vaccine maker, where millions of doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine are being manufactured.
Local reports said that the blaze was at a construction site at the large facility, with a source close to the plant telling the BBC the fire will not affect the production of the COVID vaccine.
Doses produced at the plant will go to India and many other low and middle-income countries.
The site in Pune, in the western state of Maharashtra, is also preparing to produce the vaccine being developed by the U.S. company Novavax Inc.
Pune’s fire office told Reuters news agency five fire trucks had been sent to the site. There was no immediate word on any casualties, nor on the cause of the fire.
This month Indian regulators approved two vaccines, Covishield – the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University – and produced by the Serum Institute, and Covaxin, made by Bharat Biotech, based in Hyderabad.
India has launched one of the world’s largest vaccine rollouts with the aim of immunizing 300 million people by August.
The country has registered more than 10.5 million COVID cases, the second-highest in the world, and 152,000 deaths, according to the World Health Organization COVID tracker. (Newsweek)
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