Five dead in a fire at the headquarters of the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer – Telam

Large vaccine factory caught fire in India

Five people died today as a result of a fire at the facilities of the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, located in a city in the west of the country, although the production of the doses against the coronavirus was not affected Local media reported.

News channels showed huge gray smoke above the Institute’s headquarters in the city of Pune, where millions of doses of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford are currently produced.

Local police have reported that the incident will not affect vaccine production, the Indian newspaper Times of India said.

The facility where the fire occurred is an institute building that was under construction, while the plant where the vaccines are made was not affected by the fire.

The flames engulfed the fourth and fifth floors of the building and were extinguished by a team of firefighters after three hours.

The causes of the incident are still unknown and authorities have opened an investigation to clarify what happened.

Serum CEO Adar Poonawalla confirmed the deceased on Twitter and offered condolences to the families, the Europa Press news agency reported.

Emergency services located at least five bodies, while rescuing several other people who had been trapped in the building.

Indian authorities launched the vaccination campaign on January 16, aiming to vaccinate 30 million health workers and auxiliaries, while only around 786,000 had received doses until yesterday, according to data from the Ministry of Health. .

In crude terms, India is the second country in the world with the most coronavirus cases, only behind the United States, and officially exceeds 10.6 million positives and 152,869 deaths since the start of the pandemic.