Serum Institute: Fire in the world's largest vaccine producer kills five

 

In western India five people were killed in a fire at the site of the world's largest vaccine producer. 

Serum Institute,western India

The fire broke out in a building still under construction at the facilities of the Indian Serum Institute in Pune Thursday afternoon.

Video footage showed thick plumes of smoke billowing from a building at the company's sprawling site.

The company said that vaccine production would not be affected. They try to find cause of the fire has not been determined.

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The fire was later brought under control, but the city’s mayor confirmed five people had been killed.

The CEO of the Serum Institute, Adar Poonawala, said in a tweet on Twitter: "We just received some disturbing updates; after further investigations, we learned that unfortunately some lives were lost in the accident."

Five people were killed during a fire at the site, Mr. Bonawala said there would be no effect on the assembly of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, known locally as Coffeeshield, "due to the multiple production buildings I have kept even in reserve to influence such emergencies."

The world's largest vaccine producer, western India.

Coffeeshield is one of two vaccines approved by the Indian government for use in the vaccination program that began last week and is the largest in the world.

Many other low- and middle-income countries also believe that a serum institute provides the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

Since the pandemic began, it has confirmed more than 10.6 million cases and nearly 153,000 deaths, according to figures released by Johns Hopkins University.